I met a woman long ago
her hair the black that black can go,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Soft she answered no.

I met a girl across the sea,
her hair the gold that gold can be,
Are you a teacher of the heart?
Yes, but not for thee.

I met a man who lost his mind
in some lost place I had to find,
follow me the wise man said,
but he walked behind.

For miles i walked with sorrow
And never a word said she
But oh the things i learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.

Yousef Al-Janabi was born in Birmingham, England on the 30th March 1983 to an Iraqi Father and Irish Mother. At the age of nine his family moved to Northern Ireland where he was educated and attended Pembroke College, Oxford, to read English in 2002. Al-Janabi left soon after due to considerable misfortune and after unsuccessful spells in other universities in the United Kingdom became somewhat a social dilettante. Brief periods living in London as a music journalist and New York as a political writer and activist were unsuccessful largely due to manic depression and a loneliness which he went on to write about in his first book of poetry ‘The Circus Underground’ which was published by Faber & Faber in 2009 and won the Pulitzer Poetry award, and the Mann Booker prize in the same year. He later published 'The Blue Marquee' and 'The Trebuchet Boys'. the short story collection, 'Pink Mini-Skirts & My Problems' was written in 2011 and became internationally recognised, further acclaim was found in his 'But I Am Dying' novel. 'Rainbow Road' and 'Where Is GOD?' were later published by faber & faber and by 2017 Al-Janabi became chief lecturer and consultant of literary theory at the University of Cambridge and was elected a member of the American Academy of Letters. His collection of writings entitled ‘The Machine Gunned Pavlova’ is considered the finest fiction work of modern times. Al-Janabi went on to publish 'General Commander Banng' and 'Tarantula' aswell as biographies on Samuel Johnson, Leonard Cohen, and a master thesis on contemporary literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2019. His most recent books 'The Sun & The rain' and 'Forest Folk Alchemy' were published simultaneously and have baffled the worlds leading literary analysts. 'Airport' and 'Sugar House' confirmed him as the worlds finest living writer. He has not published in five years and has reportedly been working on what will be his final work, a poem entitled 'I am a poem'.


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