A modern, philosophical spin on classic Persian poetry.
An Iranian poet gives English-speaking readers the gift of Persian verse.
If Persian verse is a great edifice, the two pillars carrying its heavy weight are Rumi and Omar Khayyam. These giants developed—and, some would say, perfected—many of the standard forms of the genre, including masnavi, gazal, dobeiti, and robaii. In this book, debut author Irannezhad follows in Rumi’s and Khayyam’s footsteps, producing contemporary poetry in these sturdiest of structures. The masnavi and gazal forms are comprised of rhyming couplets; thus, Irannezhad gives us “Honesty”: “Honesty in life is a pure light, / Anyone who chooses it will be bright. / Anyone who lives without honesty, / During life will be unhappy.” By contrast, dobeiti and robaii are made up of quatrains, as in the following lines from a longer section called “The House of Wine”: “From birth to death are many steps / Every step we take brings us closer to our graves. / Behind your steps, sown a flower, / then paradise will appear at your steps.” The theme that Irannezhad weaves through all these classic structures is a life philosophy that he calls the “Rule of Existence.” According to Irannezhad, the Rule brings happiness and hope, and his poetry brings the Rule. Among its many benefits, he says, the Rule has the power to fulfill and liberate: “Shazde, in life like a nightingale be, / Fly, be free and become one of me!” Perhaps the only real weakness in this collection is the fact that the philosophy sometimes seems to overwhelm the poetry itself. In between verses, Irannezhad occasionally offers short prose passages that elucidate thorny parts of the Rule: “Two eternal instincts: one positive and the other negative; the education as right or wrong that we own from the beginning; the amount of understanding and intelligence to self-analyze, brings richness.” At best, this seems like New Age–y abstraction; at worst, it’s totally obscure. Either way, readers will be happy to get back to the poetry.
A modern, philosophical spin on classic Persian poetry.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-9-52-936188-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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