BEFORE I MET YOU
March 5, 2017
“I only wrote prose before I met you.
My musings were superfluous and serious as well.
But now the words dance with me.
I sing with them
and we create poetry.”Kamand Kojouri
Author: Dr Kamand Kojouri
Kamand Kojouri was born in Tehran, raised in Dubai and Toronto, and resides in England. She completed a creative writing PhD at Swansea University and currently teaches creative writing workshops.
THEY CAN
March 4, 2017
“They can award me with the greatest accolades
and reward me with the finest diamonds.
They can name days and streets after me,
canonise and celebrate me.
They can make me the queen of their kingdom,
the president of their nation.
They can carry my picture in their wallets
and whisper my name in their prayers
but, tell me, what is all this worth
if your voice isn’t the one calling me home?”Kamand Kojouri
AS SOON AS WE ARE BORN
March 4, 2017
“As soon as we are born
we hide God in ourselves.
We then spend our lives looking for Him
when all along, He has been concealed behind
the veil of ‘I’.”Kamand Kojouri
FLYING DREAMS
March 4, 2017
“Usually, when I dream of flying
I am simply flapping my arms
and somehow I lift off and glide through the sky.
Last night was different.
I missed you so much
and my yearning was so powerful
that I sprouted wings like a phoenix
and soared to reach you.
And now I finally understand:
if you see lovers on a roof, do not worry.
Surely, love has metamorphosed them.”Kamand Kojouri
I WILL DRIVE THE WORLD CRAZY
March 4, 2017
“I will drive the world crazy
with love poems for you.
So they can know how magnificent you are
and how crazy I am.”Kamand Kojouri
FIRST LOVE
March 4, 2017
“I was so blessed.
The first person
I gave my heart to
was an angel
who plucked the feathers
off his wings
and built a nest for it.”Kamand Kojouri
March 4, 2017
“If I had to choose between all the books in the world and you, then I would choose to read your body for the rest of my life.”
Kamand Kojouri
CITIES
March 4, 2017
“Lisbon, to me,
is the Lisbon of Pessoa.
Just like London is Woolf’s,
or rather, Mrs Dalloway’s.
Barcelona is Gaudí’s
and Rome is da Vinci’s.
You see them in every crevice
and hear their echo
in every cathedral.
I’d like to be the child,
or rather, the mother
of a city.
But I neither have a home
nor a resting place.
My race is humankind.
My religion is kindness.
My work is love,
and, well, my city
is the walls of your heart.”Kamand Kojouri
MARY KNOWS
March 4, 2017
“Do not go to my grave.
Mary knows, I am not there.
Look for me in between pages
and on people’s lips.
Do not go to my old school.
Do not go to my old house —
I am not in any of those places.
Look for me in your hearts
and greet me there.”Kamand Kojouri
WE CALL
March 4, 2017
“We call a story about love
a love story.
We call a poem about love
a love poem.
Well then, my dear, aren’t our lives
love lives?”Kamand Kojouri
Kamand Kojouri 