عشق آمریکایی من (بیست‌و‌یک. برای ابدیت شعر نمی‌گویم)

My American Love

        Thirty-Two Poems for Wendy

Twenty-One.

I Do Not Write Poetry for Eternity

by

Majid Naficy

I do not write poetry for eternity

I write for here and now,

For you and me,

For two singing larks by the window,

For a homeless mother and her child whose screams

Woke me up last night,

For my son Azad who is not Azad anymore*

Having no time to read my new poem,

For my lover Wendy who is the first reader of my poetry

And helps me with its translation,

For my readers in exile and prison,

For an Iranian tatooer on Venice boardwalk

Who saw the inscription of my poetry on the wall

And was the first one to let me know,

For an American veteran at the bus stop

When on my return from Wednesdays’ farmers’ market

Recited a Khayyam’s quatrain

And I rewarded him with four tangerines.

I do not write poetry for eternity

I write for here and now

And always put the date of composition

Under my poems.

        July 18, 2017

*- Azad in Persian means “free”.

POEMS: 1. On the Bridge, ۲. I Hope the Water Returns, ۳. Empty Baskets ۴. Coffee Maker ۵. Anxious Heart ۶. Washing ۷. Bougainvillea ۸. Simple Truth ۹. Persian-Singing Bird ۱۰. The Gardener ۱۱. Lost Cypresses ۱۲. Visiting the Wall ۱۳. Is Love a Glass of Hormones? ۱۴. Independence Day ۱۵:  Oh, Pain ۱۶. The Season of Picking Raspberries ۱۷. Who Is More Envied? ۱۸. Watching Baseball ۱۹. A Night in Calistoga ۲۰. Dreaming “High Noon” ۲۱. I Do Not Write Poetry for Eternity ۲۲. Our Footprints in Maui