A New Poem and Small Article Review

I have completely recovered from having that creative block. Since the last time I posted, I have been laid up in bed from an extremely painful hip socket issue. It turns out that I have a ruptured disc in my lower spine, and that is what is causing my pain. Anyway, while in bed, I have been writing like a mad man. In fact, this month alone I have written 15 new poems that I am happy with. It has been great!

I have a subscription to American Poetry Review, and this most recent issue has an article about a Persian female poet that was pretty hot stuff in her day. Her name was Forough Farokhzad, and she was a liberal feminist in Iran during the sixties. At that time, Iran had a secular government, but was still somewhat conservative. The article is written, and the poems are translated by Meetra A. Sofia.

Forough lead a fascinating, and somewhat tragically short life. At the age of 32, she was cut down by a taxi cab in Tehran, right out of the movie studio in which she worked. She sold over a million copies of her poetry, which was a tremendous accomplishment in a male oriented culture. By this time she has become an Icon in Persian culture.

I think of what is going on now in Iran, and what would Forough have thought with this new president. Well, her poetry speaks for itself. It is fascinating. I won’t post any here because I have great respect for copyrighting. But you could see some if you go here - http://www.aprweb.org/issues/current/farokhzad.html. Her poetry really rings a bell with me. Some of it makes me uncomfortable, but really, I think that would be a response that any poet would like to have. It is solid to know that your poetry has an affect on its readers.

Here is a new poem:





Rage Against the Machine

Rage comes to me, back
Against the wall. 30,000 plus died so
The big wig can support the
Machine and its mission

The Man must make the
Machine happy and alive, it
Is hungry for satisfaction in
War and its evils and crimes

War births cannibalism of the soul, which
Is death for the spirit and
Our potential to love and leave a
Legacy of life over death

Our ancestors and our children leave their
Legacy and see ours. To look at the past
Is to look to the future. We must avoid
Destruction and take it upon ourselves for Peace