SHARDS OF TIME, Maryam Hiradfar. Saint Julian Press,
2053 Cortlandt, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77008, 2023, 52 pages, $18 paperback,
http://www.saintjulianpress.com
Every once in a
while, a poet comes along whose poetry teaches one how to read it. I find
Maryam Hiradfar’s “Shards of Time” to be in that category. Language that
appears on the surface as familiar and with too healthy a dose of abstraction
for contemporary American poetry, in reality becomes devotional, contemplative,
dare I say liturgical when given a close reading—preferably aloud. “Dawn is
loved forever,” from section I (“Torrents at Dawn”), in which the title is
repeated as the final line to each of the four stanzas, is emblematic of this
description. “Dawn is loved forever”—the line—is composed of three trochaic
feet with each of the three stressed syllables an open “ah” or “eh” vowel,
giving an acapella, choral effect to its reading. This “ah” vowel sound is echoed
throughout the first stanza:
Day is offering
lighthearted as a dove
and plain as the blanket
of morning mist
Dawn is loved forever.
The language in stanza two enacts
its theme of “never-ending” / “forever” with the “eh” vowel providing ample
assonance of the middle vowel of “forever” in words scattered throughout: “Quenching,”
“moments,” “engulf,” “ever-stretching,” and “ends”:
Quenching
our thirst
as we revolve
in the
never-ending cycles
and moments
that engulf us
in their
ever-stretching fabric
pinned
between the two ends
of the
revolving horizon
Dawn is
loved forever.
The third stanza begins with a line
of layered meaning, due to the multiple uses of “passage” as “trip,”
“passageway,” and a section of (sacred) “text,” to name a few. The stanza
incorporates a blending of the vowel sounds found in the first two stanzas,
offering a change of tone, juxtaposed against the stable final line:
Yet the passage
of this
beloved orb
against the
infinite landscape
decorate
with time
prefers now
[italics mine] over all history
and gently
puts to rest
all hopes
of juxtaposed dance
of now and
infinity
Dawn is
loved forever.
Heavy use is made once again of
assonance in the final stanza, along with the half-rhymes or chimes, both at
the ends and in the middle of lines (“eclipsed” / “wished,” “stars” /
“darkness, “reveal / secrets,” “cold” / “stone,” “falls” / “longs,” “light” / “dives”
/ “silence,” and “awe” / “Dawn”:
And in its
embracing warmth
moments are
eclipsed
washed out
like sand
the stars
wish
for daytime
darkness
to
momentarily reveal
their
long-held secrets
when the
shadow
of a cold
stone falls
on all that
ever longs for light
and the
world dives into silence
in awe
Dawn is
loved forever.
A second poem in section I, (“Fragments
of a Breath”) moves the repetition from lines to words and has even more
musicality, particularly in its long lyrical passage that makes up the middle two-thirds
of the poem, ending in an anaphoric passage enacting our being “…dispersed /
through the river currents / ….”
After the
edges of papers
have turned
yellow
yellow
corners curled up
cover
covered with dust
sheets
wrinkled like our skin
skin turned
into dust
when the
ink is dissolved
and so is
our blood
when the
soft flesh is gone
crows’
sunset feast adjourned
when we are
dispersed
through the
river currents
on the
wings of the wind
on yellow
pollens a bee carries
in the body
of a flower vase
in the warm
blood
of an
albatross flying free
in the deep
blue of a heron’s wings
in the
azure of eyes born anew
in the
breath of a singing robin
Even though these lines have no
more than 3 accents each, they find room for anaphora, assonance, consonance, simile,
imagery, narrative and lyricism. But Hiradfar’s diction does not get stuck in
one syntactical mode. In the next poem, “Shards,” we find lines enacting the
title with short lyrical narrative thrusts of two strong beats each (“Shards
pierce / the flesh of reason / and the mind bleeds”).
If
the reader tires of lyricism and music in Hiradfar’s poems, she only has to
keep turning pages and imagistic, narrative poems will appear. “Lunulata” (a
venomous, blue-ringed octopus), “The Silent Saxaul Tree,” “Arrow of Time,”
“Neowise,” “Violet Night,” Red-Tailed Hawk,” “The Fourteenth,” and “Coyotes”
all focus their energy on a narrative that does not compromise their lyrical,
musicality—a balance that enacts the center message of this book: a balance
between inner / outer; things cosmological / things human; the supernatural /
the quotidian; and the abstract / the concrete.
Lunulata
Light as a
leaf
stretched
as a new canvas
her body
rests on the water
that has
made an offer
to bear it
all
The weight
and the
compression
the dust
and the old scars
all that
there ever was
What
remains is a clear frame
for
unfinished brushstrokes
and
half-written words
buoyant and
asleep it floats
bridging
the dark ocean rocks
and the
exploding hearts
of ancient
stars
In this compact
(52 page) yet capacious first full-length collection, a reader can find a broad
range of poems: free-verse, formal, organic, even nonce-forms—those invented
forms that convince the reader they have been around forever. “The Quiet
Corner” (with an ABAC rhyme scheme) evokes Dickinson (“Come to the quiet corner
/ where meaning lies bare at rest / come to the center of disguise / to the
kingdom of essence, undressed); “The Eternal Companion” personifies doubt
(“Walking down below the shadows / looking far across the mind / voice of doubt
kneeled and whispered: ‘say it clearly, say it loud’”); and “The Pilgrim” is an
incantatory meditation that, after four lines of anaphora resolves into an echo
of the early poem of repetition, “Dawn is Loved Forever,” coming full circle
like a snake swallowing its tail:
The Pilgrim
Streams may
flow
ice may
grow
but when
let free
a stone
gently
sinks to
the bedrock
where Peace
is still
where Peace
is sane
where Peace
belongs
where Peace
came from
“All seek
the Origin”
All return
to Tranquility
Through
torrents at dawn.
Shards
of Time defies precise classification in the world of contemporary American
poetry. It declares itself out of time and must be read on its own
terms—written from a Rumi-esque perspective about life, death, time, eternity,
and writing as spiritual practice rather than a memetic art. At the center of Shards
of Time is the moment, the continual now, now, now that is meant to be
lived, not analyzed, enjoyed, not explained, celebrated, not regretted or
anxious about. And yet, a critical analysis of Hiradfar’s work through the lens
of Richard Hugo’s maxim about two kinds of poets, leans toward placing her in
the category favored by Hugo. In chapter one of The Triggering Town, he
states:
When you
start to write, you carry to the page one of two
attitudes,
though you may not be aware of it. One is that all
music must
conform to truth. The other, that all truth must
conform to
music. If you believe the first, you are making your
job very
difficult, and you are not only limiting the writing of
poems to
something done only by the very witty and clever,
such as
Auden…so you can take that attitude if you want…
but you are
jeopardizing your chances of writing a good poem.
With many of these
poems obviously leaning into their music, rather than into pre-determined truths
arrived at independently of the actual writing of the poems, I believe that
Hugo would say that Hiradfar has made the correct choice. And her poems are a
testimony to that. As readers enjoy the musicality and lyricism of this
collection, they will not be able to refrain from looking forward to the
evolution of this young poet, to see where the shards of time will lead her.
Maryam Hiradfar is a poet and writer whose roots can be traced back to the literary landscapes of classical Persian literature. Growing up encircled by the rhythmic verses of classic Persian poets like Rumi and Hafez, plus modern luminaries such as Sohrab Sepehri and Ahmad Shamlou, Maryam became infused with the essence of Persian poetry from an early age.
Amidst her academic pursuits at Harvard, Maryam found a nurturing haven within the Lowell House Poemical Society, where her passion for poetry flourished. This creative sanctuary became the birthplace of her original works and a space to refine her unique voice. Her poetry, which bears the visual imprints of her love for illustration and photography, offers a fusion of imagery and language that resonates deeply.
Roadside, Maryam's first poetry collection, marked a milestone in her artistic journey. She invites readers into her world through her verses and camera lens, offering an intimate glimpse of her perspective. Maryam embarks on a new chapter with her latest creation, Shards of Time (Saint Julian Press, 2023). This collection marries minimalistic graphics with poetic narratives, crafting a mosaic of feelings and moments that transcend the boundaries of traditional expression.
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