Magazine

My Mother’n’Father-A prose/poem-My mother, Yocheved (Eva), came to Canada from Palestinein time, she met my father, David, also originally from Palestine,at the Canada/Palestine Club. This would be in the early 1930s.She valued his intelligence, strength, love of Shakespeare, science and opera, and his politics.She called him handsome. They were Zionists, idealists.He also partnered with her in finances – he would…

The Story I Couldn’t WriteThe truth is, the story began long before. I had often said, heard, and read that writing is the cure for unresolved trauma. The only way to overcome unseen monsters is to reach into the dusty dark of forgotten words, pull them into the light, and look them straight in the eye. This is what happened:…

AUTHOR’S NOTE:This triptych of poems on mental illness imagines how individuals who are dispossessed and exiled from the reality we like to think of as normal create their own normal sense of reality. Having lived with mental illness in my family for many years and watched its manifestation from the outside in, I wanted to envision it from the inside…

Transplanted-“Courage is demonstrated when we choose to fight injusticeinstead of turning a blind eye” Linda Pruessen-A transplanted man I am, a Strayanfrom ancestral land of aboriginalsguarding traditional territoriesbearing dingoes, marsupials and opals;lands created mystically in dreamtimeby the creator spirit who teacheshumans to treat the earth and animalswith respect for the land in their reaches.-I’m an Oz transplant on Turtle Islandliving…

AUTHORS NOTE:While exploring the art of writing poetry in English, I couldn’t help but compare its form, structure, and themes with those of Persian poetry. A long poem in English has its traditions and conventions, and its closest counterpart in Persian and Arabic literature is the Ghasideh (or Qasida). Both the long poem and the Ghasideh employ extended narrative forms…

Bangey Simal-The town of a twisted cotton tree.-The twisted cotton tree. Someone might have loved the tilt of the trunk so much to name the town after the simal tree. She stood alone against the constant wind at the edge of the village. Even though there were various trees in the area, the queerness of her branches bent the idea…

About the piece:”The Panhandler” is a piece that was performed at Toronto’s Wrecking Ball political festival, accompanied by two chorus pieces from Xina’s adaptation Univers-Al, based on Euripides’ Greek tragedy The Bacchae, using Roger Beck’s literal translation from the collection Euripides Out Loud with permission.The PanhandlerBrother got a light?Sister?Hey, is it possible for a cigarette?No one smokes anymore these days……

A movie called war-Where to film war moviesbattlegroundOn the set of a war movie on this planetwar never endsA performance of war unfolds there.A tragedy that never endsScene where flesh is torn and blood splattersA place where unknown actors risk their livesThey mainly take on the role of those who dieThis movie will never win any awardspainful death and deathendless…

ALL MAY YET BE WELLSo days and weeks pass, even decades,long enough that we hope for relief.Misfortune grows smooth turf on its backand withdraws into its deep den.(And you look no older —your teeth are strong shoots of young reed!)As always, all the people know to talk aboutis the miserable shadow of the king,who lost between graves looks for a…

Author’s Note:News reported that Ali Reza Zeynali and his young daughters Aymah and Hilda were killed in Israeli bombing of residential neighbourhoods in Tehran. Their wife and mother has been reported injured and hospitalized.**********What is her name?-those who die have a nameand their names are spokenthe one who survivesis left alonenamelesswith permanent scarspainful memoriesand a sorrow as long as her…

Holocaust CemeteryOn visiting the Zaglembier Monument-Grass and mud minglein trodden sorrowaround the granite.-Beloved namesof the deadetched in Yiddish,like a story by Sholem Aleichemwritten in Auschwitz.-Engraved columnsbitterly sleepon a slate grey landscapein the orphaned parkwithout a voiceor a dream.-The sun is buried toounder swollen cloudsthe compressing skynear tearsand the wind clingsto my legslike a frightened child.-The air is in painits dull…

Muff River-Wake me slowlyLike a river’s go-YesHave me mumbleThrough and for usBeyond a nighttime’s streamTo find the founds beyond-Then tooHave me turn towards and near –How grasses’ flowBy every can be-Slow this almost-sleepThis glisten-And if ferns should ever wand or dreamPlease muff all the glowWhen thenWhat’s floating byDips to fold above us****************************************Flip Flop—The sun is a bastardIt pimps hot lightAll…

Dig-The city of Toronto shut down for most of February.It had been some time since there was so much snowall at once, and we didn’t know how to deal with it.Municipal spokespersons said it could take as longas three weeks to clear all the roads and sidewalks.-Last Thursday I watched one of the greatest gamesof hockey I may ever see.…

The Trap of the Light—During their time at the dinner table, his wife hadn’t managed to get a word from him. He remained silent not only when she had asked him about the meeting, but also toward her simple comments about the food. Her apologetic phrases about generosity with the salt, a little bit too much this time? Nothing. Absolutely…

My brother and I ended up in the system and the system wasn’t kind.Only one of us survived. This poem is a true story.dwightdwight was born bi-racialat a timewhen it wasn’t alrightto be bi-racial-dwight was born gayat a timewhen it wasn’t alrightto be gay-dwight’s motherabandoned himbecause she didn’t wanta bi-racial child-dwight’s foster parentsridiculed himbecause they didn’t wanta gay son-dwight’s friendsbeat…

Translator’s Dedication Note:I dedicate this translation to Parnia Abbasi (2001–2025), an Iranian poet killed on 12 June 2025 in an Israeli strike on Tehran— one of the souls Israel refers to as “collateral damage.”*****I’m becoming “collateral damage”- I’m becoming “collateral damage”I’m dead—yet still queued for broadcast,especially during analysesthat weigh dried blood. Not big enough to make the headlines,not useless enoughfor…

Three poems by Parnia, published in Vazn-i Donya in December 2022, translated from the Persian by Saba Pakdel.Saba Pakdel is a poet and PhD candidate at the University of Victoria.The Return to YouPounding on my shorewith pulsing pearls of your bodyyou pour out on my sandsI paddle through your armshook up your smilefish caught in a netI again fall in…

Official Lack of Memory—“Just staple them!” he says, skimming through her CVhard to understand in such a broken English, her referencesin a language that looks to him like kindergarten doodling,and degrees earned from a university he’s unsure it existsor she’s made it up, yeah, he can google it but he’s late for lunch,at least some of them did some good…

Author’s NoteDavid C. Brydges, a great friend, a phenomenal poet, left us sadly and unexpectedly in the last week of Apr 2025.I had a chance of meeting him at some poetry gatherings and listening to his inspiring readings.Also, David Brydges participated in the Radio Show I was hosting in 2020.After meeting him in one of the online poetry gatherings, I…

RefinementOnce there was a brakeman who was so musicalhe became a conductor. One day, transportedby the majesty of the music, he dropped his batonmid-movement.The stick signalled from the stage,Shouldn’t you pick me up?I don’t really need youafter all, the conductor quipped, dismissing the tool,and pleased himself with waving his hands orchestrallyin the air, the tails of his jacket flapping at…

Verses Adapted from Sor Juana de la Cruz258. Maitines de la Asunción, Mexico, 1679, & xxxviii. Maitines de la Asunción, Puebla, 1681….–As the sour voice of the sacristanCollared the pews, corralled the church,Two Guinea madonnas—bronze, not wan—Veered therein, premised for God to search….-Each princess, so uncommonlyComely and coherent, could notSubmit to the sermon, onlyValidate humours polyglot,-Interrogating both priests and nuns—Those…

RightWe laughed at those liesBecause they were, after all,Issued during an election campaign. -We overlooked those liesBecause they were only a sloganIn a cute video with puppies. -We ignored those lies, becausePutin will improve with age, orSo the pundits persuade. -We absorbed those lies because,After all, it was another war whereTruth is always the first casualty. -We let slip those…

Published by Asemana BooksShape of ExtinctionPoems by Bijan JalaliTranslated from the Persian by Adeeba Shahid Talukder and Aria FaniPreface by Domenico IngenitoCritical Introduction by Aria FaniCover illustration and artwork by Amelia OssorioISBN: 978-1-0690210-8-3Publication date: May 9, 2025Shape of Extinction brings together 59 short poems by the modernist Iranian poet Bijan Jalali, the first book-length selection of his meditative yet quietly…

I still remember the day, as a teenager, when I accidentally saw the half-open door of his bookbinding shop in the Kerman bazaar. A unique world lay behind that door: traditional bookbinding, beside leather designs inspired by René Magritte—a dreamlike place where discussions of manuscripts and Tarkovsky films intertwined.With a laugh and a touch of frustration, he once said that…