Status Updates From Songs of Exile (Essential P...

"You cannot be any but me
fearing that speech is not free
and that life is a good price"

this poem about charlie hebdo is so Good

"What is the genre of pain?

I cannot translate it into a story
Chronology kills it in the beginning, middle and end"

"I saw so much
I never saw
I saw nothing -

I never saw"

"It holds us hostage
to its dreamless
dreams

knowing that nightmares
are immortal"

"No wonder
fortune tellers
can tell the truth:

They have been studying
history"

"the oppressed
crying against injustice
turn into oppressors"
is... is she talking about israel

I can't believe Zan brought up the acid attacks oh my god

when white ppl look at u
"The sky in your eyes
is the tempestuous peace
of militant empathy"
ohhhhhhhh

i'm sorry i'm too busy crying over Threshold ya rab
"Nature-
a witness
to my stasis
and your growth

My eyes caressing you
in my absence

Love,
My homeland,

I had always thought
you
were as far as I could go"

"We speak
the same tongue-
our togetherness
intimate acts of separation"

"I am in love
with misunderstanding

I look words
in the eyes
and invoke them

There is no response-
they do not recognize themselves
in my accent"

"You are the language
so universal
you are forgotten

Be my linguist

Turn me
into your words."

fUCK
"There is a war
in your name

I have martyred you
sold you
to freedom

oh, Freedom"

"phoenix -
your back to
the mirror-

you are the most
immortal death"

Really enjoying these poems! The way Zan writes about words and incorporates Greek and Iranian mythology into her poems is so intriguing.

The poems are quite simple to read but often beautiful and require you to connect the dots.