The weather here in Belfast is turning steadily cooler, the days shorter, and its nearly time to break out the wooly knits and hot cocoa. Perfect weather for a bit of poetry.
We had the honour last week of attending the launch of Northern Irish poet Michael Longley's new book – and to hear the man in person read his poems. When pouring through hundreds of poetry submissions each round, something that often gets overlooked is how much poems are enhanced by the human voice and physical presence of the reader. It evokes our primordial past, gathered round the fire, allowing ourselves to be transported to another time, place, and perspective. Conjuring the same magic on the page takes a special skill.
Our regular readers (blog and magazine) might have noticed we have a special fondness for poems that transport us to another time and place. And “city poems” are an especial favourite.
Here we have a city poem by a poet from Nigeria. Except he's not taking us to his own country. Let's travel now in the safety of our imaginations to a city with a complicated present and past, and a rich culture and history dating back 6,000 years.
POETRY
IDRIS IBRAHIM
Tehran
Outside the airport of Tehran,
there’s an atmosphere filled with
instantaneous greetings, enlaced in rhythmic Arabic.
A young lady with masked eyes, siphons my attention
into a steep valley, where a blissful garden
is suspended.
The smell of each coriander extends to the city front,
to grant a warm interference with the lavender
that erupts from the meadow.
Here, even the sun
ceases to burn what it finds in its path,
and the sand dunes stretching far-off the west side
are a tectonic arrangement
of the Persian dream.
She also shows me the east-centre of the city,
where the minaret of a dome-shaped mosque
towers to the centre of the sky,
so the ravens can encircle
in a harmless symphony as the
muezzin offers the call to prayer.
When the imam stretches forth his hands,
the young girls and women pray
for their lost loved ones to encounter
peace.
AUTHOR BIO
Idris Ibrahim is from Northern Nigeria and writes from anywhere his soul is able to connect with the blessings of life's bittersweet symphony. His works have appeared in the Instutionalized Review, Cloudscent Journal, The Kalahari Review, The Brittle Paper, and elsewhere. Outside writing, he enjoys debating, soccer, and experiencing the beauty of literature in nature's testimony.
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