7 Poetry Collections ‘Ashk’ Published in Shiraz
According to the correspondent of the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) in Shiraz, these collections, each between 100 to 140 pages, encompass the poet’s various inclinations towards New Wave poetry, short poetry, and Persian and English haiku formats.
The published titles are: Silent Leaves Dance (New Wave Poetry Collection / Autumn Poems), I Wish Guns Would Die (Persian Haiku Collection), This Bus Doesn’t Reach Home (Short Poetry Collection), Trains Without a Path (Short Poetry Collection), Middle East, The Last Chapter of History (New Wave Poetry Collection), Postmen Sometimes Kill People (Short Poetry Collection), and EMPTY BOAT RETURNS (English Haiku Poetry Collection).
The main themes of these works revolve around humanity, war, loneliness, and the search for peace in the contemporary world. Yazdani, in this period of his creation, uses a concise, visual, and critical language to narrate the condition of modern man. The simultaneous publication of these works marks a new phase in his literary activities, in which the poet’s perspective transcends personal experiences and seeks a new expression in the realm of thought and language.
This haiku poet from Shiraz said about the importance and impact of short poetry on the new generation: “Short poetry, whether in the form of Eastern haiku or its free and modern forms, is a response to the language’s exhaustion from length and repetition, and to a fresh understanding of the world that lives in the moment. Short poetry is a child of times when words must be precise, fast, and immediate, just like a heartbeat. I must say that today’s world is a compressed and fast-paced world; a world where words, images, and emotions simultaneously appear and disappear.”
According to Yazdani, in such an environment, short poetry is not merely a literary genre, but a way of living and understanding. Today’s generation, amidst a deluge of data and sounds, seeks a bright and pure moment; a moment where meaning, like a sudden spark, awakens the mind. Short poetry is that spark; a nudge that expands into an idea in a few words. In my opinion, this generation no longer has the patience for long writings and poems; it wants to feel, to touch; and to reach the deepest meaning in the shortest possible time.
This provincial publisher stated: “In haiku, the poet sees the soul of nature in a pure moment and recounts it in a language devoid of exaggeration; in Persian short poetry, we have a similar effort: recreating ‘perception,’ not just ‘description.’ This movement shifts poetry from narration to perception; from words to silence. Therefore, short poetry has provided the poet with the opportunity to write understanding instead of narration; to record an instant of awareness instead of interpretation. This type of poetry liberates language from adornment and presents meaning in a more biological form of feeling; just as the modern mind operates on social networks and media: fast, visual, immediate, and alive. In an era where the world rotates rapidly and the human mind is tired of repetition, short poetry reminds the new generation that the world can still be recreated in a few words. Brevity here is not weakness; it is precision. Short poetry teaches us that thought is not necessarily talkative, and sometimes the greatest meanings are hidden in the silence between two lines.”
