My approach to poetry books has become project-based; ‘Shapes of Wind’ is a selection of 200 short poems

The poetry book ‘Shapes of Wind’ by Hamidreza Shekarsari, a poet and literary critic, has recently been published. In this book, Shekarsari has contemplated wind in short, mostly three-line poems, focusing on its various and diverse forms.

This book is a continuation of his series of poetry collections including ‘Shapes of Snow’, ‘Shapes of Leila’, and ‘Shapes of Humility’. Like his other collections with similar titles, it contains concise, single-image short poems about the poet’s central theme. In these types of poems, the poet views his central theme from a different angle in each poem of the book and expresses his thoughts through it. ‘Shapes of Wind’, spanning 112 pages, includes 106 short poems on the theme of wind and has been published by ‘Vaj Publishing’ in an edition of 300 copies.

On the occasion of this book’s publication, we approached Hamidreza Shekarsari to discuss it further.

Below is the full transcript of this interview:

Mr. Shekarsari, could you please explain your new book ‘Shapes of Wind’?

For about fifteen years, my approach to poetry, and indeed to the concept of a book, has become project-based. That is, compiling a book for me is like executing a project; like building something. In this process, there is no longer any poetic inspiration or what is colloquially called ‘the eternal master told me to speak.’ Because I believe that in many cases, it’s not the inspiration or the first line of a poem that comes to a person, but rather the poet or artist who goes in search of poetry and artistic creation. The poet, in a way, engineers the elements of his work, rather than having them pre-arranged. For this reason, in recent years, I have tried to transform poetry collections into poetry books using a certain technique or trick; meaning that the poems in a collection are not like flowers from different meadows that have been accidentally placed together.

Do you mean that the books you publish are almost in the same vein in terms of mood, subject, and theme? The poems are composed in a common space. Is that correct?

Exactly so. An effort has been made to avoid a ‘jungle-like’ state, i.e., collecting poems from different times and moods in one collection. As a result, the poetry collection has been transformed into a poetry book. Based on this, for the past ten to fifteen years, I have tried to write many poems with a single theme, object, or subject, and then select a number of them to be published as a poetry book. This process can take anywhere from a few weeks to several years. During this time, the poet tries to approach the subject or theme from various angles, and each time, gains a new insight from this closeness. In the next stage, these poems are selected and published as a book.

What made you think of ‘wind’? And for how many years have you been pondering it?

The ‘Wind’ project developed as an extension of my previous projects; a continuation of ‘Shapes of Snow’, ‘Shapes of Rain’, ‘Shapes of Humility’, ‘Shapes of Leila’, ‘Shapes of Forgetting’, ‘Shapes of Grave’, and ‘Shapes of Death’. Therefore, ‘Shapes of Wind’ came along the same path, and God willing, other shapes are also on the way.

Wind is one of those natural phenomena that is not visible at first glance but is felt; it doesn’t appear alive, but in reality, it is alive because it moves and has an impact. The potentials inherent in this phenomenon initially came to my mind in the form of seven or eight short poems, but gradually this project became more serious, and the number of poems reached about one hundred and fifty to two hundred short poems. In the next stage, these poems were handpicked and selected, resulting in the book ‘Shapes of Wind’. In this collection, the poet has tried at times to pay attention to the physical aspect of wind and at other times to its symbolic and metaphorical potentials; in some poems, only the descriptive aspect of the phenomenon was considered, and wind was addressed from various angles. During this period, which lasted about six or seven months, everything I looked at, I saw the wind present in it, and gradually the wind turned into poetry.

I felt that some poems sometimes became too philosophical and abstract. Why did this happen? Does the poetic quality of the poems not diminish and the philosophical aspect not become more prominent in these cases?

Sometimes when I approached this phenomenon, potentials would appear behind it. As I mentioned, sometimes the physical aspect of wind stood out for me, and sometimes not; rather, I pondered the wind based on my human states and moments. Living with this phenomenon for several months leads to a kind of inner revelation. Therefore, this inner revelation may move away from the physical and geographical level of wind and, as you put it, acquire an existential and philosophical dimension; and this is completely natural.

For example, in a poem, I say ‘And showed man the wind / Travel was created.’ Here, it is true that like all other poems, the physical aspect of the poem is also considered, but it also refers to certain teachings in the human mind. This fusion between the two aspects makes the poem not just visual; it also gains the capacity for philosophical interpretation. Or in rhetorical poems, I ask ‘Does the wind carry the bird / or the bird carry the wind?’. Such poems are interpretative; you can replace ‘bird’ with ‘human’ and ask whether life carries humanity or humanity creates life? These interpretative potentials exist in some of the poems and may approach the philosophical and existential aspect you mentioned.

How have your audience reacted to this book and this type of poetry?

A poet is not like a swamp; we are constantly in touch with our surroundings, and to prevent decay and decline, it is necessary to be influenced by our environment and, in turn, influence it. Before this book was published by ‘Vaj Publishing’ with the efforts of Ms. Leila Kordbache, I shared some of these poems with friends and critics. Also, I published some of them on social media and fortunately received good feedback.

Some friends pointed to the novelty of the poems’ perspective on the phenomenon of wind. At the same time, some expressed concern that since wind has a long history in Persian poetry, many of these poems might have repetitive aspects or themes. However, when I shared these new experiences with them, they said that the perspectives were completely fresh and they had not previously addressed this phenomenon from this angle. Fortunately, at the book launch ceremony held a few days ago through the efforts of my esteemed friend, Mr. Omid Chavoshi, I received very positive feedback. The audience’s reception of the poems was truly moving for me. Afterwards, I received kind calls and we had serious discussions about the poems.

A few poems from the book ‘Shapes of Wind’:

Slowly, slowly
It sways the empty swing
Midnight wind

Rain down on the sky!
Winds are not birds
They continue their journey

Hey wind!
It’s not for playing
Obituaries
On the walls

Grandfather’s obituary
On the alley wall
Last resistance
Against the wind

This loving message is not for me
Haven’t you made a mistake
Kind wind?!

“This too shall pass”
The whisper of the mountain
In the wind

The wind
Brought the clouds
Took the stars

The wind
Passes indifferently
By the leafless trees

Does the wind carry the bird
Or the bird
The wind?

Wind
Is not a simple displacement of air
Someone is blowing on the burnt skin
Of the earth