SOODABEH SAEIDNIA - POEMS

Soodabeh Saeidnia was born in Iran (1973) and received her Pharm.D. (1997) from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and also Ph.D. of Pharmacognosy (2002) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Iran. She has worked as Visiting Researcher and awarded a Foreign Researcher Fellowship to work as a Research Associate both in Kyoto University, Japan (2002-2003 and 2005-2006), as well as Assistant and Associate Professor at TUMS (2007-2015) and Visiting Professor at Saskatchewan University, Canada (2013-2014). She has written roughly 150 scientific papers for various academic journals, as well as academic books and book chapters in both English and Farsi. She is also interested in English literature and poetry, and has published a collection of her poems, Harfhaee- Baraye- Khodam (Words for myself), in the Farsi language. Now, Soodabeh is living in New York and her poems have been published (or a head of publishing) in the American magazines and literary journals including Squawk Back, Sisyphus Quarterly, Paradox, TimBookTu, Bobbling of the Irrational, SPINE, American Writers Journal, Tuck Magazine, La Libertad, Tiny Poetry, Indiana Voice Journal, The Pen, 352 degrees and the Great Weather for Media. A number of her poems have been printed in the books Where the Mind Dwells and American Poet by Eber & Wein Publishing as well as Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze by Johnson Publications and Artistic. A collection of her poems, Street of the Ginkgo Trees is now available online on Amazon. Moreover, she is the editor of a middle eastern anthology by 10 poets, Voice of Monarch Butterflies, that has been recently published.

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                              The Year I was Born …
 
When I was born,
everything was as it used to be
The sun was bigger than the moon
and light traveled at a constant, finite speed
(186,000 mps if you don't remember)
and no one doubted if Armstrong
landed on the moon
 
When I was born,
war blew as it does now
and nobody cared
if it was hot or cold!
Africa meant hunger
Asia meant opportunity
(but nothing was made in China)
 
When I was born,
there were sweet berries
growing on the streets
They smelled like happiness
and everybody could taste
them on the right season
That season is now extinct
 
When I was born,
blue jays were too blue
to be Democrat
and red roses were too red
to be Republican
and nothing was
light magenta
 
When I was born,
I was supposed to transform
into a rainbow butterfly - but as
nothing went through the right way-
I became a painter who paints
everything in gray as it used to be 
 
 
  
                                     Seeds of Sequoia
 

You, daughter of the Sun
A sunflower
on the field of my frame
of past
Who brought you to this far land?
 
You, a castaway frigate on the ocean
A sailboat
endured typhoons and tides
the only remainder, the last
Who turned your rudder toward a safe bank?
 
You, a pollen of Sequoia
a seed
spread by winds of change
Who watered your roots
by tears of consciousness?
 
You, a young branch of an old oak
Never tell anybody
who sang for you the melody of the rain
during the hot nights of summer
and gave you a dream of a cold breeze
 
 
                                               Micro-poetry
 
#1
If you want to come
Into my loneliness
Step slowly!
It’s crystalline,
wholly taken from the finest,
translucent emotions
 
#2
Bars in nowhere
Sides in no direction
and I infinitely wonder
Who’s the prisoner?
Who’s the jailor?
 
 
#3
Every day
gives birth
to a new chance
sparkles in your hand
Keep your fist tight!
Don't let it leak
until night

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