“Your whatness
is what we share with you,
our togetherness.
Your thisness
is your separate essence,
your distinctness.
I love you for your whatness,
for the me in you, and the you in us.
I love you for your thisness,
your eternal soul,
deathless and endless.”Kamand Kojouri
“What is the point of all these books
when I learn best by reading your body?”Kamand Kojouri
“You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when I hear your unbridled laughter?
How can I deny it
when I see your constellating freckles?
You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when your scent shadows me at night?
How can I deny it
when your beauty attacks me in the light?
You do not insist that I love you,
but I insist that I do.”Kamand Kojouri
“When you left,
poetry visited me.”Kamand Kojouri
“You keep asking me about my past lovers
and whether I still have feelings for them.
You become upset when I don’t keep a straight face.
Yet, it is not my fault. I can’t help but smile
when I think about later tonight
and how my fingers will comb through your hair.”Kamand Kojouri
“I look at my parents
the way mothers look at their toddlers.
I take every chance
to witness them undisturbed.
To study every detail
as if sitting for an important exam.
I take note of their hands,
the curves of their ears, the way they
envelop a room and greet others.
The way their souls shine through
when they speak of something they love,
like a candid photograph
unveiling beauty and truth.
Even though I am present
in the same space as them,
I am distanced
because of the intensity of my love.
Every heartbeat reminds me
of the ephemeral nature of our bodies
and the blessedness of these moments
until my father looks up from his book
and catches me smiling.
And like a child he is bewildered for a moment
and smiles back.”Kamand Kojouri
“If only we studied the stars as much as we study our own reflections.”
Kamand Kojouri
“Autumn has come
and reason has gone.
Yesterday, I sold the sun for you
and tonight the stars are running away from me.
When you first spoke,
you slowly annihilated my world.
Your mouth was like the sea —
in your kisses I sank.
Your hands were like the ocean —
in your caresses I sank.
I ask for no salvation on this moonless night.
I only ask for more Autumn.”Kamand Kojouri
“The first time I heard you laugh,
I only wanted to say funny things
so you’d always be laughing.
You know what happens to chocolate
when you leave it in the sun?
I’m that unfortunate chocolate
and you, you are the laughing sun.
For this reason, I’m offering myself to you
not as a martyr or some selfless fool,
but as a self-indulgent moth
who fiercely pursues the light
without fearing the flame.
The moth who revels in the heat
and declares
Burn me.”Kamand Kojouri
“Everywhere I go,
your beauty spills
into my day.
The trees were
never this verdant.
The birdsong
never this sweet.”Kamand Kojouri
Kamand Kojouri 