Drought

By Bänoo Zan

Censor the garden. Stain the glass. Shower in paper. Water stood drinking. Molded life into breath. Flowed. Moved in and out of fissures. Danced around fingers. Lay in wait for grass. Water happened. Water asserted its creed. In the dark and in the desert. Water missed nightmares. Water is you. Pour words into water. Let it swim. Let it dissolve. Pour pain into water. Let it scream. Pour water into your birth. Together memories grow. Nourish fear and courage. Nourish muscles. Eyes. There is water in blood. There is water in ink. If water flows, stars join the forest. Worship the tears. Travel to Tabriz. “Don’t seek water. Earn thirst.” 

Author’s Note:
Tabriz is the city in Iran where Shams (Rumi’s lover and spiritual mentor) came from. The final quotation is a line from Rumi.

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Bänoo Zan (she/her) is a poet, librettist, translator, teacher, editor, and poetry curator, with more than 200 published poems and poetry-related pieces as well as three books. Song of Phoenix: Life and Works of Sylvia Plath was reprinted in Iran in 2010. Songs of Exile, her first poetry collection, was released in 2016 in Canada by Guernica Editions. It was shortlisted for Gerald Lampert Memorial Award by the League of Canadian Poets in 2017. Letters to My Father, her second poetry book, was published in 2017 by Piquant Press in Canada. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Toronto’s most diverse poetry reading and open mic series (inception: 2012). It is a brave space that bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions.