My Story

On a windy day in early autumn I went to my balcony with a folder of all my love poems from twenty-five years of writing. I read each one in a voice that matched the wind's passage across the still lush lawn through the trees into a brightening distance, which was this day's birth. They were poems of lover and beloved, their happiness, their fruitful conflicts, their sojourns in seasons of plenty or scarcity. And their gratitude to the Earth for tilting on its axis one distant summer day, so they were thrust into each other's arms. Such were the poems I thrust into the wind's passage. When I finished, the silence I felt around me was a purely personal silence.Birds sang, leaves rustled, traffic droned three blocks away, and in the apartments around me, people readied for the day's business, marshaling crucial facts, rehearsing urgent speeches. Satisfied, couples greeted each other and talked of inconsequential things. I had heard the earliest bird songs become a multitude singing from branches and rooftops. Finches fly in wide swooping circles. Two robins play a game of stealth, temporarily silenced by their hunger. This is just how I imagined my new world would begin, with everything the same but profoundly altered. I follow as always Goethe's example, who knew when to turn desire into hope fulfilled, and mind, naivete and sensuousness coalesce into a new kind of poem which will be perceived as a sacred response to this new world birthing itself around me. And through Goethe, Hafez offers his sweet advice. As I gaze at this new world around me, I am astonished by its abundance. No trace of envy or disappointment, this is an age of contentment from which will spring only generous impulses, and my voice, fortified by nature, amplified by agape, will release songs of glory, shining with resolve. This poem was inspired as a response to MY STORY by Baharak Barzin.