God is not dead.
She has forsaken us.
We wipe our angry, hate-filled tears
after another shooting as a man
polishes his gun outside a mosque.
All those stolen lives—we scream
for justice! But God has quietly left
our temples and churches.
She will not return, for what we have done
is much worse. We have murdered
humanity.
God has deserted even the devoutest of us—
those who hoard our love and compassion
only for the good and righteous as we abandon
the bigots brimming with hate.
Yes, they are the least deserving of love
but the most in need of it.
God’s agony rings in our hearts.
She wails for the future
shooters.
And though we reject them,
God greets these cracked and confused creatures—
the least deserving of compassion
but the most in need of it!
These suggestible souls susceptible
to the systematic vitriol spilling
from demagogues and cult leaders,
brainwashing them.
We read their spiteful tweets,
yet when we pass them in classrooms,
in trains and markets,
we dismiss those seemingly small, nameless
opportunities for kindness.
We don’t know—and how ignorant we are—
that every time
we ignore them,
we sharpen our daggers
and butcher humanity in its raw flesh—
not in dark alleyways, no, but in the light of day.
Because hating them,
shows how loving we are.
Because condemning them,
proves how moral we are.
And every shooting illuminates
the collapse of our collective duty
to love as God loves,
to be compassionate as God
is compassionate.

Prayers heal, yes—
but for God’s sake, let God be.
First,
let’s resurrect our humanity.”

Kamand Kojouri

“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

“We are all lost,
so lost, vulnerable and insecure.
We are separated from love at birth,
we are separated from God,
from each other.
All we want,
all we yearn for
is to connect.”

Kamand Kojouri

Always ask yourself: ‘What will happen if I say nothing?’

“Let our silence grow with noise
as pregnant mothers grow with life.
Let our silence permeate these walls
as sunlight permeates a house.

Let the silence rise from unwatered graves
and craters left by bombs.
Let the silence rise from empty bellies
and surge from broken hearts.

The silence of the hidden and forgotten.
The silence of the battered and tortured.
The silence of the persecuted and imprisoned.
The silence of the hanged and massacred.

Loud as all the sounds can be,
let our silence be loud
so the hungry may eat our words,
and the poor may wear our words.

Loud as all the sounds can be,
let our silence be loud
so we may resurrect the dead
and give voice to the oppressed.

Our silence speaks.”

Kamand Kojouri

They want us to be afraid.
They want us to be afraid of leaving our homes,
to barricade our doors and hide our children.
They aim to make us fear life!

They want us to hate.
They want us to hate the other,
to practice aggression and promote oppression.
They aim to divide us all!

They want us to be inhuman.
They want us to throw out our kindness,
to conceal our love and bury our hope.
They aim to take our light!

They think their brick walls
will separate us.
They think their damned bombs
will defeat us.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that my soul and your soul are old friends.
They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that when they cut you, I bleed.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that we will never be afraid,
we will never hate,
and we will never be silent.
For life is only ours!

—Kamand Kojouri

“Do not avert your eyes.
It is important
that you see this.
It is important that you feel
this.”

Kamand Kojouri

“What is life?
Life is living in this moment,
experiencing and experimenting
but experience isn’t life.
Life is reflecting and meditating
but reflection isn’t life.
Life is helping and guiding
but philanthropy isn’t life.
Life is eating and drinking
but food isn’t life.
Life is reading and dancing
but art isn’t life.
Life is kissing and pleasuring
but sex isn’t life.
Life is winning and losing
but competition isn’t life.
Life is loving and caring
but love isn’t life.
Life is birthing and nurturing
but children aren’t life.
Life is letting go and surrendering
but death isn’t life.
Life is all these things
but all these things aren’t life.
Life is
always more.”

Kamand Kojouri

“The guilt you felt
when you were smiling
and others were suffering,
the guilt you felt
when you were petty with friends
and impatient with your parents,
when you were rude to your teachers
and didn’t stand up for strangers,
that guilt
is marvellous.
It proves that you are human,
that you want to be better.
Thank this guilt for teaching you,
for making you aware.
And now endeavour to better yourself.
It is a lifelong work to become
the person we want to be.”

Kamand Kojouri

“This is an ode to life.
The anthem of the world.
For as there are billions of stars
that make up the sky,
so, too, are there billions of humans
that make up the Earth.
Some shine brighter,
but all are made of the same
cosmic dust.
Oh, the joy of being
in life with all these people!

I speak of differences
because they exist,
like the different organs
that make up our bodies.
Earth, itself, is one large body.
Listen to how it howls
when a human
is in misery.
When one kills another,
Earth feels the pangs in its chest.
When one orgasms,
Earth craves a cigarette.
Look carefully,
these animals are freckles
that make Earth’s face lovelier
and more loveable.
These oceans are Earth’s limpid eyes.
These trees, its hair.

This is an ode to life.
The anthem of the world.
I will no longer speak of differences,
for the similarities are greater.
Look closer. There may be distances
between our limbs,
but there are no spaces
betweenourhearts.
We long to be one.
We long to be in nature
and run wild with its wildlife.
Let us celebrate life and living,
for it is sacrilegious to be ungrateful.
Let us play and be playful,
for it is sacrilegious to be serious.
Let us celebrate imperfections
and make existence proud of us,
for tomorrow is death—
and this is an ode to life.
The anthem of the world.”

Kamand Kojouri

“Forget your voice, sing!
Forget your feet, dance!
Forget your life, live!
Forget yourself and be!”

Kamand Kojouri