eastbaypoetics.com » persian poetry

my hips write a poem

tahminah zaman, m.f.a. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:06:59 +0000

i write a poem with

my hips

a calligraphy in flesh

movement of oriental script

circling cresting undulating

under your watching gaze

my torso becomes a hungry snake

my spine a pillar of fire

body a wand of desire

craving you

calling you with my rhythms

coins clang upon my belt

against eternal buzz of thighs

we hypnotize each other–

performer and watcher

the stage a glimmering sky

between us

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do-rageh, or “two colored lollipop” (after Tara Bahrampour’s To See and See Again)

tahminah zaman, m.f.a. — Fri, 30 May 2008 06:02:22 +0000

two colors

two sets of veins

braided

threaded thru flesh

traveling vines;

one brown, one white

intertwined

two tongues weaving

one into the other

songs

written on the heart

strings;

one soup whose waters mix

two continents together

“…make me hungry enough…”

tahminah zaman, m.f.a. — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:24:15 +0000

“…make me hungry enough so a crust of millet bread

will taste like fine pastry. this is all one prayer: give me

the same longing that drives a wild madman-lover out

to look for what cannot be found.

that naked need lives in me as a certainty where i know

that whatever i’ve done wrong is covered

by the larger compassion we move inside.

that is the meaning of Allahu Akbar.”

–Bahauddin, father of Rumi

don’t tell me everything

what little i know is enough

to keep me spinning spindly stories

from the damp parts of air.

don’t keep

anything from me

because everything you utter

is sweet

give me the same longing

that arrives with this loneliness

–oneness–

that keeps God close.