Accosting the Butterflies: Selected Persian and English Poetry

Accosting the Butterflies is a translation of a collection of poetry published in Iran in 1994 by the same title, 'Khatab be Parvaneh ha'. The book was a revolution in contemporary Persian poetry as I introduced Postmodern Persian poetry. Poetry should use language itself to speak to our thoughts and desires by being multilingual, polyphonic, and deconstruct language to use a multiplicity of fragmented forms, sounds and descriptions, free of any constraints of form, rhythm, and narration. Influenced by Persian and world poets, my poetry reflects on repression, the longing for a homeland, love, loss and the yearning for freedom. In addition to poems from the original book, Accosting the Butterflies, includes translations of some of my later poems and some of my English poetry.