POETRY BY JEAN SASSON

Although author Jean Sasson is known for her non-fiction books about the Middle East, few people know that she has been writing poetry since she was a child.  Here’s a small sample of poetry written by Jean influenced by her years in Saudi Arabia.  (Dates and reasons poetry written included)

 This is the first time Jean has shared these poems with anyone.  The poems written here, along with other poems, are to be included in Jean Sasson’s next book.

Poem #1, “He Was A Passing Shower,” was written in 1978, shortly after Jean had arrived in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to work in the royal hospital, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre.  When Jean first arrived at the hospital, she was strangely affected by a hospital photo of the 3^rd King that was hanging in the entrance hall.  The Kingdom had been thrown into chaos when King Faisal was assassinated in 1975, three years before Jean arrived.  Jean soon came to know that King Faisal was the hope of his people and that many hopes had died along with him.

He was a Passing Shower

Desert poets proclaim that

King Faisal was a passing shower.

And that his people were the desert flowers.

When strong winds pushed aside the passing shower,

the desert flowers withered.

                                                                                “He Was a Passing Shower” by Jean Sasson              

                                                                                                                            September 1981

Poem #2:  “The Black Veils of Riyadh”

Jean says that nothing in Riyadh affected her as strongly as seeing the throngs of black veiled women, unwelcome in Saudi society, and discovering how little valued they were.  So many horrific events were occurring to Saudi women that came to light when they were admitted to the hospital, that their plight became impossible to ignore.  In her sadness about their predicament, Jean wrote the following poem. 

The Black Veils of Riyadh

How sad it is to be a woman.

Is there anything on earth so scorned?

No one is glad when a girl is born,

Not even her mother who suffered the pangs of her birth.

Her father glowers at the shame of her femininity,

Failing to mention her unwanted emergence into his world.

When she nears adolescence she is told to hide in her room.

Even after she drapes the veil over her eyes,

She is too frightened to look a strange man in his face.

She is the only one weeping when she leaves her childhood home,

Walking in the shadow of her husband, a man who is a fearsome stranger.

Her black cloak fails to hide the trembling of her limbs.

She is filled with terror,

But no one cares.

She is only a woman.

                                                                                                                  “The Black Veils of Riyadh,” by Jean Sasson

                                                                                                                                October, 1978

Poem #3:   “Daughters of the Tents”

In the early days, all Saudis, including the Bedouin, graciously welcomed Western strangers into their homes.  Jean was entranced by the sight of Bedouin tents and the veiled women standing quietly, making tea and silently serving strangers.  The women of the tents returned Jean’s curiosity and often stroked her blond hair and her face, quietly chatting in a language Jean could not understand.  There was an unspoken camaraderie shared between these women from such different worlds.

 Daughters of the Tents

In this ancient land

the black hair tents of the Bedouin

dot the landscape.

One tent stands apart from the rest.

A beautiful woman is sheltered inside.

As she lifts the frayed dangling ends of black cloth,

her chocolate eyes burn brilliantly.

She contemplates the blackest night bursting with stars,

and she instinctively weaves her raven tresses with darkened hennaed hands.              

How she longs to draw the horizon closer,

revealing a world where women’s dreams come true.

She is as invisible as her dreams,

for she is a daughter of the tents.

No one but her husband will ever know the sweetness of her sighs.

                                                                                                                  “Daughters of the Tents,” by Jean Sasson

                                                                                                                                            November, 1982

Poem #4 was written years after Jean had departed Saudi Arabia.  Yet she still had many good feelings for many Saudi Arabians.  On September 11, 2001, she watched with the world as America was attacked and innocent mothers and fathers and children were murdered.  Jean was traumatized to soon discover that young Saudi men had traveled to America with the sole purpose to kill as many Americans as possible.     

Here’s a poem she wrote in honor of the victims. 

September 11, 2001

 I look upon a sunny day

And see a rogue gray shadow.

Black winds puffed with dark ideas

shatter buildings touching the sky.

I soon learn that a devisor

of wicked dreams and sinister plans,

is making innocent men and women pay the bitterest toll.

How can I endure this torment too dark for human eyes

as the sight of fading lives

spiral to earth like wounded birds.

I long to pluck each being from the dimming sky,

and sweep away their dying.

I know that when they yield their last breath,

their sorrows will disappear

into those who love them.

When this sad day turns to night the smoky fires light the sky,

creating a simple pyre of mourning,

for those who simply vanished.

And now the ones who plot our demise will soon discover,

that freedom will fight fiercely for its life.

And I suit up in my armor and go forth into the night. 

                                                                                                           “September 11, 2001” by Jean Sasson

                                                                                                                           Written:  September 14, 2001

Jean’s next book is currently being written.  Readers will learn when this new book will be published as soon as that information is known.