“Come, let us speak with our bodies.
Teach me how to please you.
I am here to learn.
Let us not waste this time.
It is the hour of union.
Come
And after you do,
Come again.”Kamand Kojouri
“Do the lovers know
that when they whisper these poems
they are commemorating our love?
Do they ever think of you and me
or only of themselves?
Do they know that I once found
a strand of your hair
and wore it around my neck
like a necklace?
That I kiss your hands
more than I kiss your lips?
Do they realise that our love
and their love
are drops in the universe’s ocean of love
and that without any of these drops,
the ocean would be
less?”Kamand Kojouri
“Extremities are flawed.
Moderation is ideal, save for one occasion.
So damn these eyes that weep too much.
This mind that thinks too much.
But never this heart that loves too much.”Kamand Kojouri
“Tell me where swans go in winter
I need to know if the mute ones can sing.Tell me why stars fall from the sky
I need to know if it is luck they bring.Tell me why feathers land near you
I need to know if you’ve injured your wing.Now, tell me where you end, my angel
For I no longer know where I begin.”Kamand Kojouri
“It is raining blood today.
I open my book and write Black Lives Matter
to acknowledge the unanswered injustices.
I write Blue Lives Matter
for how can any human
be separate
from humanity?
I write All Lives Matter
but stare at these words—
Don’t they invalidate the others?
I stand conflicted
as the clouds continue to bleed.
I try to erase the last phrase
but find the blood
has already
drowned my words.”Kamand Kojouri
“Here’s another poem,
like all others before and after,
dedicated to you.
There isn’t anything left to be said
but I will spend my life
trying to put you into words.
You who is every goodness,
every optimism
and hope.
Your love is a better fate for me
than anything I could wish for.
If you are a part of me,
then you’re the best part.
And if you’re separate from me,
then you are my destination.
But I’ve become a weary traveller,
so please,
let us never be apart.”Kamand Kojouri
“Why didn’t you write all this time?
Did you not remember us in a song?
A dance?
In the skies littered with stars?
Did you not get drunk?Why didn’t you write all this time?
Did you not remember us in a film?
A book?
In idyllic dusks and dawns?
Did you not get high?It is good that you didn’t.
For all is well.
I am drunk and dazed.
I have already forgotten you
and your bewitching ways.”Kamand Kojouri
“I have no use for these other loves.
Seal them shut in jars
and place them in the pantry.
A reserve of love.Thank them for their love.
They are so kind.
Perhaps store them in the fridge
For others to take.They say love is a panacea.
I know it is not.
Flakes of snow,
no two are alike.When I am down on my knees,
hopeless and angry,
for the world no longer makes sense,
I won’t look in the fridge or pantry.It is your hand pressing on my shoulder
that makes me whole,
makes me forget:
‘What trouble? What world?’”Kamand Kojouri
“Violinists wear the imprint on their necks with pride
For they are the players of harmony.Pilgrims, too, wear the imprint on their foreheads with pride
For they are the conductors of unity.And Lovers? Why, they are made humble by the imprint on their hearts
For they are merely the instruments of rhapsody.”Kamand Kojouri
“Think the tree that bears nutrition:
though the fruits are picked,
the plant maintains fruition.
So give all the love you have.
Do not hold any in reserve.
What is given is not lost; it shall return.”Kamand Kojouri
Kamand Kojouri 