April 5, 2016

Three Poems by Soodabeh Saeidnia: "Mailboxes", "Neverland" and "Scientific Concept of Love"

Soodabeh Saeidnia was born (1973) in Iran and received Pharm.D. (1997) and also Ph.D. of Pharmacognosy from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in 2002. She was Visiting Researcher (2002-2003) at Kyoto University, and was also awarded a Foreign Researcher Fellowship to work as a Research Associate both at Kyoto University (2005-2006), as well as 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 books in both English and Farsi.
She is also interested in English literature and poetry, and has published a collection of her poems, Words for myself, in the Farsi language. Now, living in New York with her husband and nine year-old son, she is a freelance researcher, and would like to share her thoughts and feelings with other people. Her poetry has been published in many journals. Most recently, her poem "Magic list" passed semifinal contest of PoetryNation and has been accepted to be published in their book "The Dwells of Minds". Her newest book, "Street of the Ginkgo Trees" is available online.







Mailboxes

Mailboxes are raising their population,
genetically evolving to the virtual boxes
You can have a variety of them
Literally free of charge and responsibility    
How lucky we are to live in the third millennium
and still possess their living ancestors
Lovely, old fashioned mailboxes are so patient
They don’t disturb us every single minute   
There are boxes constantly changing their names
and rarely loyal to one name for two years
There are grand boxes hardly lean on the wall
and sickness is dripping from their flaky faces
There are boxes that only remind us of our debts
and once in a while a court summons   
Some boxes are only expecting bills,
statements and a pile of expired flyers
Most of us never receive a lottery winning letter
nor a love poem in a fancy envelope  
but we still open our mailboxes every other day
while a little anxiety swims in our heart 


NeverLand
(A Pantoum)
I was a bird in a dream
flying like a feather in wind
up to the space over the clouds
My past life was left behind
flying like a feather in wind
where the gravity can't touch
My past life was left behind
somewhere on the earth or such
Where the gravity can't touch
was like a paradise in heaven
somewhere on the earth or such
I’ve never felt like that ever
Was like a paradise in heaven
beauty and silence stream
I've never felt like that ever
I was a bird in a dream



Scientific Concept of LOVE

I wonder if
nothing more than a four-letter word is
what has been thought
to be a supernatural phenomenon for centuries
Myths have been quoted
Stories have been told
to say that is something extraordinary
Celestial deposit, fantastic divine
Gift of the incredible Gods
Wars started on its axis
Bloody conflicts
A lovely word!
You can’t explain it
unless you get help of its own
Pharmacists say: Chemistry is the only reason,
the root of every blooming love
Biologists talk about the dynasty of hormones
as the only true Gods of the body temple
And me
in between the science and poetry
in between the myth and reality
looking for a new concept of love

~Soodabeh Saeidnia

Total Pageviews