From Zayandeh Rud to the Mississippi by Mahnaz Badihian (OBA)
Reviewed by Jennifer Langer

This is a collection of poetry by Iranian born Mahnaz Badihian who has lived in the US for twenty-five years. Half the poems are translated from Persian and half written in English.

The subtitle of the collection is ‘A Voice form a Road between East and West’ and her work aims to mediate a space between the two cultures. However, this collection represents the emotional difficulty and struggle of negotiating the loss of home regardless of the length of time spent in the country of exile.
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Michael R. Burch
Michael R. Burch is the poetry editor of The HyperTexts. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared over 400 times in literary journals and sundry publications in the USA,

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Esmail….

For Esmail Khoi(Iranian poet in exile)

I am talking to you Esmail
When was the last time you had a sip
From the Caspian Sea
For dreams to come through

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BLACK DRESS

by Julie Enszer

Linen, long. Two slits on the side.
I had one exactly like it,
but it was purple with two patch
pockets. One winter, I stored it
until spring. It was lost. I snatch
this black one off the rack. I want
it mostly for memory. I wore
that purple dress when my life was
less complex. I was single.
I want to recapture that, but
this new dress is stiff. It scratches
my back. I want to wear it sans
brassiere but it demands support.
No matter, soon it, too, will be lost.

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Caroline

Elkin's book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction this year. The book looks at atrocities performed by British forces in Kenya in the 1950s.

Caroline Elkin is an Assistant Professor of history at Harvard University.


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Esmail Khoi

From Forough's Grave,
Translated to English by M. Alexandrian

I'm returning from Forough's grave,
Dark.

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To President Bush, You Cannot Kill Our Brothers and Explode Our Mother’s Grave…

Dear President Bush,

How can you sleep at night? How can you look at your wife, your mother, your daughter and yourself and tell them you love them? You are lying to all of them. If you love them you would able to have feelings for all the people being killed every day in Iraq. You would have feelings of regret for this unjust war in the Middle East that so far has cost life over 2000 American soldiers and the lives of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

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Reza Baraheni is a fomer Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Tehran, also former President of Canadian PEN. Below is a few poems form a book of poetry he published in English in 1976, God's Shadow: Prison Poems is a collection of poems based on a period of 102 days spent in solitary confinement in Iran, during the time of the Shah. He was also imprisoned in the fall of 1981 and the winter of 1982 by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Nostalgia

Oh if a man could crawl out of here
as a snake or lizard, and go-no!
Grow wings
and take flight, fly
to a place where the world no longer resembles a dirty rumor
a place where the scorched feast of sand
stretches to be alone without
even hands or feet, without head, without cock
to be...
And the sea wash him constantly
like the luminous presence of a stone, smooth
circular
the sea wash him constantly
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Iran: The Next Neocon Target

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
Before the U.S. House of Representatives - April 5, 2006

Iran’s history is being ignored, just as we ignored Iraq’s history. This ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation of our recent relationship to Iraq and Iran is required to generate the fervor needed to attack once again a country that poses no threat to us.

Iran: The Next Neocon Target

It’s been three years since the U.S. launched its war against Saddam
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Spirals, Tides, and Pennies in a New Age

By Andrés Alfaro

I am an admitted desensitized entity. Before I knew them my forebearers had already presented me with the delights of cemeteries and shovels.
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An article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh discloses plans by the U.S. to attack Iran including a possible nuclear attack.

The administration of President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue.

In response to the Hersh article English Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that millitary action against Iran was,"not on the agenda." He also responded by saying, "They (the Americans) are very committed indeed to resolving this issue ... by negotiation and by diplomatic pressure. And what the Iranians have to do is recognise they have overplayed their hand at each stage ...,"

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Ahmad Shamlou
Iran's most celebrated contemporary poet
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Rafael Guillen (1933 - )

According to the Mexican government, Marcos' real name is Rafael Guillén. Guillén studied high school
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Headless Babies

by Mahnaz Badihian

The room was filled with
Lost dreams. Music was from
Captured humans in the battle
For humanity!
They are still hopeful that angels
Are busy making headless babies
With human hearts.
With the manuscript for pre fabricated
Head wrapped in their umbilical cord.

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