Spring Approaches

The darkening dusk of evening
So peaceful on a President's day
The light in the window leavening
Letting winter chill fall away

Spring approaches yet not quite
Water freezes after darkening dusk
Or in the shadows of low-canted light
Flowers wilted within wet withered husk

Yet spring approaches once again
That is the promise of the year
Triumphant blossoms remember when
It is proper for their ilk to reappear

Blossom in your heart as lilies do
Like lilacs and cherry and the rose most fair
Yet abide until the winter's through
Until the chill has left the air

Sit with me in the wan sunlight
Endure the coldness of the season
Ponder the flowers in struggling plight
How most fragile life shows nature's reason

Logic implicit in the strength of flowers gentle
Shows how we may thrive remaining most elemental

Valentine's Salvation

Cover my cuts in balm of love
Wounded and embarrassed by failure
Burned and charred by ashen end
Buffeted by rebuffed attention

Valentine then looses the dove
And through miracle most peculiar
Puts a heart to gentle mend
Though the softest-worded mention

"You are loved," and "I love you."
Recognition of each other's worth
Eases pains and ends the grief
That impales the strongest on ire's spike

So hearts may freely beat anew
We seek across this networked Earth
To crown counterparts with floral wreath
And share our souls with those alike

Be my fond darling, and I'll truly be yours
I love you my brothers, my sisters, even more than myself
Dearest mother, or father, or fair sweetest child
Valentine's salvation thus sacredly heals

Though generous love we manifest cures
The best elixir found on any alchemist's shelf
Whether passionate, silly, or modest and mild
This balm is best applied as each party so feels

Thus may you find a good doctor on this day's anniversary
And may Valentine himself tend your heart's garden nursery

2nd Iranian Literary Arts Festival, SF, 5-6 February 2009

Poetry about heart's love, healing life, and a homeland

30 years ago, the United States and Iran had the nationstate equivalent of a lover's quarrel. The divorce was terrible. As in such things, it was the children of Iran who suffered, and many were forced to leave home. Yet slowly, over time, the diaspora of Iranians around the world have used their beautiful language to help heal many of the old wounds and make sense of the world.

Belonging, the collection of Iranian poetry from around the world produced by Niloufar Talebi and her colleagues at the Translation Project, is an exquisite bi-lingual collection of such expressions. With English and Farsi on facing pages, the book is a visual depiction of the mirrored, reflective mind maintained the international Iranian community. Thinking of their new homes, and remembering their homeland.

The title is an imperative towards harboring a heart of bittersweetness: Be Longing. And a recognition of that conditional feeling of inclusiveness: Belonging.

The collected poetry comprises a sensuous world remembered and imagined, filled with lemons and oranges, romantic flowers, dull drab days, novelties of life in the Western world, old fondnesses of Iran, matter-of-fact realities, scathing ironies, and infinite personality quirks.

The free festival event this week, in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library, promises to bring the black-and-white words on a page to full color and lively bloom. Hope to see you there!

-Pete.