Month: August 2007 | Mahnaz Badihian Oba

Poets from around the world attended including: Mahnaz Badihian (American-Iranian),Massimo Sannelli (Italy), Mani Rao (Hong Kong, China), Lana Derkac (Croatia), Patrick Cotter (Ireland), Gerry Murphy (Ireland), Tae Ho Han (Korea), Roberto Piperno (Italy), and Peter Waugh (Austria).

The Kritya International Poetry Festival concluded in India on July 23, 2007.

[ClickPress, Thu Jul 26 2007] The festival started with the traditional lighting of the lamp by KL Bhatia, governor of Kerala. Helping him were Rati Saxena, director of Kritya. The festival was held at the Vylopilli Bhavan Center in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.

Indian poets who were present included: ONV Kurup, K. Satchidanandan, Vinaya Chandran, Deshmangalam Ramkrishnan, and John P Matthew.

There was a wide variety of poetry presented from Peter Waugh’s sound poetry to Argus Speer’s wallpaper poetry. Young Shireen Badihian sang a beautiful ballad in French and Indian Dalit poet Loknath Yashwant presented poetry of the downtrodden in India.

So you know
for Hooshang

I will write to you,
So you know,
In this strange land,
I am alive, and my blood which is
Floating in your veins,
Still sings the song
Which our father used to hum
In our mother’s ear.
We were kids then,
And together we planted the sky,
With all the wandering stars
in our brick pond.
And broke all the walls.
The whole world was our little room
Which had a big window to the world.
Our shared room had a corner for
Father to read newspapers,
And you reading Rumi.
And for mother to cite Hafez.
While whispering with her tired insides
Shaking her head.
I am writing to you, so you remember
those hairs that you pulled for fun
These days are greeting winter,
And spring plants
white flowers on them.
The boat which was getting us
Closer and closer to Zayande rud River,
Now facing coldness.
Separation of cruel waves,
Throws us in an ocean of loneliness.
I am writing to you,
So you remember life is nothing
But the moments that grab and demolish youth
But the short standing of nothing
Our luck.
Or flaming Cold.
The song that I sang with you
Is the voice of life
The song that filled our hearts forever
—
Mahnaz Badihian

Mahnaz Badihian Oba

Kritya International Poetry Festival Concludes in India

So You Know – by: Mahnaz Badihian