Words, Poetry & beyond

Sample Poetry

Phoenix

If you were like me
you’d understand
why chicken and
kitchen

are so alike
or
he and
she
for that matter.
You laugh at me
and I think of

all the silly mistakes you would make if you were me.
I give you
a lifetime.
Say  ققنوس
(and good luck!)
whenever you are ready.
Then we go flying together,
as the birds
laugh at our accents.

2008  PANTEA

 

Qualm

       to god
                       And grab jointly, all of you together, hold onto the rope of God . . .

Coils of rope,
textiles perhaps:

       cotton,

   wool,

velvet,

       felt,

calico,

         satin,

silk

hessian—

I need something to hold onto.

2008  PANTEA

Suppose Pistachio nuts

suppose we are not tall enough
to reach the twigs
trampled away with our footprints.

suppose serenity vanishes beside me salt by salt

suppose you believe in
pistachio nuts the way I carry my delight
(folded in a thin airtight bag away from those purple passages of our lives)
I once knew a true man who was more translucent than rain
who left without saying goodbye.
would you believe that I chose to live in a country
whose people call rain, nasty?

suppose you don’t shrink in the rain

suppose your hands never get cold.

suppose I wear the rainbow around my torso

and pack my bags with silver clouds.

come home, you said.
I am home, I said.
how many pistachio nuts equal truth, you asked.

suppose I come home
suppose forever,
then what?

you are not the same friend I once had.

2009  PANTEA

 

Anaar

            for my life, Shahriar

Through a generous tiny thought of happiness,

my heart
which is as big as the delight
the stars have for the moonlight,
bloomed.
My heart of so much happenstance—
our life, to me, so grand.
Yet I, for it, would

dream in my awakening:

An ocean of daffodils was our backyard.
Our roof was green
and a lonely tree,
a pomegranate tree
was showing off its transparency to a shy daffodil.

I opened my eyes,
still awake,
you were sitting on the green velvet armchair
reading.
And your eyes—

your
eyes . . .

2008  PANTEA

Apple trance

I should ponder
two steps more—
before I linger
on the serendipitous dazes
my eyes often smell:
The round fruit
on the oak table
with thin green skin,
never falls
far from the tree,
and sits next to
bright orange
oranges.

How much happier
I could be,
had I been able to touch
God’s many decisions
with my lips.
Where was Adam?
Eve was too short perhaps,
I imagined her.
Had I been her
I would pick all the apples.

2007   pantea

Blue ploy

homemade
quince jam,
mint vinegar sorbet
pickled vegetables
thick shallot yogurt

I hide behind
simple serendipitous pretexts
behind salt, sugar, pepper, cardamom, coriander, honey

I hide behind bright paint
I patch the walls
with the light thick foamy paste from the home depot
each hole and crack filled with some bitter memories

I read you Forogh, Sohrab, Whitman, Lorca, Neruda
almost everyday
we listened to Vivadli’s four season
and you didn’t even kick my tummy once

I am happy we didn’t see each other—

2009  PANTEA