Omran Salahi
Poems
Iran

Reprinted from: "Poem Quarterly", No. 2, Spring 2004, Tehran

Greener, Tehran, 1996
I prune the foliage of words
for imagination
to grow greener


The Path, Tehran, 1996
Not a lark's voice, nor a rose
not a tree to spread
its shade like a rug
nor a stream
to sing through the heart of stone

This tedious path wears me out


Chapter Fifteen, Tehran, 1996
Through the forest's frost
came the sound
of beasts

He reached the door, knocked and moaned:
Save me, O Blue Angle!


The Beginning, Tehran, 1997
This season begins with your voice
This rock, this moss, this brook, this weed
This road-bend that reaches the moon at night
This scent of the rose running slow on the bridge
This branch that blooms upon the pomegranate's branch


The Feast of Hunger, Tehran, 1998
At the window he set
his heart with a vase
for a prince to come by
and bear her in his chariot
To the feast of dreams

A miserable son of the poor came
riding upon frugal shoes
picked her up
and bore her away
to the feast of hunger


Here, Tehran, 2000
Here he sat
just on this very chair
on the table burned
a candle, just like this one

behind the glasses of yearning and gaze
a stack of poems
behind the shawl

Behind the glass passes a dense fog
here he sat
just on this very chair


From afar, Klardasht, 2000
Came your voice
like a bird landing on a bough
In the frosty land
came your warm voice, melted my heart,
from afar
I kiss you


Awake, 2000
I wake
with snow, with deer
with a boat yawning
on the edge of a shore


Like Snow, Tehran, 2001
Though I'm winter and have only snow
I am the next door neighbor of spring

Like snow I'm all eager to someday
in a flower's warm embrace pass away


The Craze, Tehran, 2002
Riding my gaze
I flew out the window
to a hill with snow on the slopes
and much to speak

It was cold-
I lit a small fire
saw you there in the shades
the world suspended within a drop

Riding my gaze
I came back



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