Somalia

The finest day has arrived

For the people of Soomaal

Our celebrated independence day

In which we happily celebrate

So please accept my request

To gather on the streets

To make the longest lines,

All facing Allah with gratitude

For I now want you to give

To hold your warm hands

Facing down with closed eyes

Sensing secure and surrounded

Feeling the blood of my brothers

Sensing the blood of my sisters

To feel I’m protected.

To feel I’m loved.

To heed in I am cared.

To a nation, people, and place

Let’s us straight up our chins

Opening our innocent mouths wide

Singing our national anthem

Till our throats desiccated

Till emotions run too high

Tears rolling down the cheeks

To pray and heal our hearts

Hugging and helping each other.

O' you my honorable youth

Hoping we make a difference.

Let's pray for our country

Let's pray for our leaders

To understand and reconcile

To sign accords of peace

The long waited unification

Let’s ask our Almighty

To forgive and bless us

Now let’s read few verses

Including the surah, Fati'ah

Acknowledging the power

Of our feeder and forgiver

And ask for help and bless

He so may bless Somalia

With peace and tranquility

Faisal Abdi

A poem for July 4th

Editor's note: If there is anything positive about being a refugee it has to be the fact that refugees embody great diversity, speak different languages, experience diverse cultures, etc. Somalis in particular amaze me with their ability to adopt two different cultures and intertwine them to make one.


I swear to forever
Protect you
Love you
Praise you
Wash you
Believe you
Defend you
Kiss you
Feel you
Wave you
Watch you
And Love you
The bright flag
Of the United States
With 13 red stripes
Thirteen white stripes
And the fifty stars
In the squared blue- shade
Be powerful forever
Be dominant forever
Never become vulnerable
To your weak enemies
Ameen.....

Faisal Abdi
Copyright © 2010

Group poem 10: Somalia's 50th Independence Day

The finest day has arrived
For the people of Soomaal
Our celebrated independence day
In which we happily celebrate
So please accept my request
To gather on the streets

To make the longest lines,
All facing Allah with gratitude
For I now want you to give
To hold your warm hands
Facing down with closed eyes
Sensing secure and surrounded

Feeling the blood of my brothers
Sensing the blood of my sisters
To feel I’m protected.
To feel I’m loved.
To heed in I am cared.
To a nation, people, and place

Let’s us straight up our chins
Opening our innocent mouths wide
Singing our national anthem
Till our throats desiccated
Till emotions run too high
Tears rolling down the cheeks

To pray and heal our hearts
Hugging and helping each other.
O' you my honorable youth
Hoping we make a difference.
Let's pray for our country
Let's pray for our leaders

To understand and reconcile
To sign accords of peace
The long waited unification
Let’s ask our Almighty
To forgive and bless us
Now let’s read few verses

Including the surah, Fati'ah
Acknowledging the power
Of our feeder and forgiver
And ask for help and bless
He so may bless Somalia
With peace and tranquility

Faisal Abdi
Copyright © 2010

Group poem 9: Somali Youth - "My Youth Experience"

O you, the youth

I have a different theme for you today

To read, reconsider, reproduce and relish

For I wish you to pay attention

It is about youth experience

For I remember the boyish face

The dirty legs ridding bicycle

Fighting in the sandy playground

With the foe neighborhood boys

Who I was told were ferocious

Carrying all kinds of illegal weapons

To preying other boys in the hood



For I was enlightened they wish to find

The weakness side of “us”

To victimize my friends and I

So did my friends initiated the assault

To humiliate the bad boys first

To see their lips lacerated

To laugh at teeth parts falling

Spitting blood mixed with muddy sand

O’ who remembers the “kala Reeb”

Where you were forced to fight for friends

Where you are left to defend yourself

From the king of the new neighborhood

Being tough was the game

For the wrongful assumptions of boyishness

Swearing, screaming, spitting, sniffing,

Not crying was rule number one!

Staying strong for immoral things

Was seen as encouragement

O’ daring to die was bravery

It was essence of boyish mentality

The essence of wrong peer pressure

Peer pressure can be wrong or right

It can be good or bad

It can be healthy or harmful



Depends on how you deal with

And discriminate your personal interests

From the dangerous at temptations

Of proving to be the toughest and the leader

Gaining wrong respect of heading the wrong path

For I was smart enough to know

And discriminate who was my best friend

Who was a bad influencer into my in life

And had to find ways to avoid

Before I run into terrible

My parents didn’t wish me to be in

Sometimes I was considered girlish



Because I had refused smoke

I denounced in participating criminal activities

Had I not rejected to do robbery many times

Had I not acted very selfish

To avoid getting into dirty fights

I encouraged my friends go to the libraries to read

I hated to hang out in the hood acting tough

For I knew that wouldn’t evince my cleverness

What makes me tough is contending with “THE MEN”

The Men who dominates me for centuries



O’ you, the young Somalis

Don’t set the gear of your dreams too low

I am now mature to discern

The world offers more than you may foretell

O’ should you not be overwhelmed by peer pressure?

And the cheap boyish mentality

That may put you in confinement

By getting caught in the compliance of criminal activities

In which you lose your citizenship

Or retain bad record in your history



To be a good citizen is to have a clean license

So avoid getting into fighting

Avoiding bad hanging out with bad boys

Avoid hooking up with fast girls

Focus your dreams

Listen to your hearts

Answer the right questions

Ignore the wrong answers

Who is your real role model?

What do you want to be?



Do you wish be a productive citizens or murder

Do you wish to help others or kill them?

Ignore temptations

Avoid depression

Distress is the essence of depression

Pushes you to do perilous performance

Doing all kinds of wrongs things to escape

The unknown or know hectic world

For I have yet to say enough

And wish you pay attention



Satisfactions is the essence of happiness

Be confident and satisfied

With whatever Almighty bestow you

Seek achieve what you desire in meaningful ways

Be respectful to your own parents

To your brothers and sisters

To your community and country

So peace and harmony shall prevail

So dreams shall reign and fulfilled

So the right morals shall guide all of us.

Faisal Abdi
Copyright © 2010

The power of education

Before I went to college
I was an uneducated man
I was an unwanted man
I was an unemployed man
I was an unwelcomed man
I was an immigrant man
I was an accented man.

Before I went to college
I was a poor man
I was a classified man
I was a black man
I was a Muslim man
I was a short man
I was a blind man.

Before I went to college
I was scared of my own future
I was in the dark house of illiteracy
I was dissatisfied with minimum wage
I was keyless to open my closed doors
I was peeved with my minimized options
I was desperate for higher education.


Before I went to college
I had doubts about my abilities
My dreams sounded impractical
And an unrealistic world of aims
But I at least dared to dream
To go to college and graduated
And now feel deep empowerment.

After I finished a college, I have realized,
Education opened the closed doors
Education eliminated my illiteracy
Education enhance my intellectuality
Education enabled me to feel that,
I am still black man and very proud
Education dearly enabled me to feel
I am still a black man and very pleased.

After I finished a college, I have realized
Education allowed me to understand that,
I am still an immigrant and very accomplished
Education allowed me comprehend that,
I am no longer an ill-informed illiterate man
Illiteracy was the perpetrator of fear and false flags
For, I do not live in fear of being inferior
And I deeply appreciate my potential abilities.

After college, I have realized
It was the best decision I have ever made
It was the right moment Allah blessed me
But it was never too late, feel VESTED
And it is never too late for anyone
To be brave and dare to dream
O you, the youth of Soomaal!
Shall you write your own destiny?
With the power of higher education

O' you, the youth of Soomaal!
Since the power of education changes lives
May you accomplish your calling dreams?
May you determine your own righteous paths?
With gracious perspicacity of higher knowledge
You will relish the empowerment of education
You will not be living in fear of being discriminated
And rather have tools to compete and dominate
With the rest of the world to rebuild your nation.


Faisal Abdi
Copyright © 2010

The long forgotten Somali flag

It didn’t want to talk me first
Because it was weeping blood
Drifting from the corners
I asked what was wrong
It shook it’s heard in disbelieve
Of my own arrogant question

Almost proving my disloyalty
Showing the bright beautiful Star
Situated in its turquoise belly
I tried to claim it down
Holding it gently in my lap
Touching, kissing, and caring

Then it finally said something
It said, I’m weeping for reasons
Because I am victimized
Because I am oppressed
Because I am ignored
Because I am forgotten

For you I am deeply grieving
When those abhor me laugh
Feeling the pride of victory
For they witness me lay down,
In the hospital bed for 20-years
The uncured bruises growing up

Helpless for the medicine I need
The medicine that would cure me
The declaration of viable peace
For I’m your symbol of liberty
One you ought to sing proudly
The long forgotten Somali flag

Faisal Abdi
Copyright ©2010