Western Diwan: Collected Poems

Bejan Baran is an Iranian-American poet and critic. He has published 4 books of poetry and literary criticism in English and Persian; with 2 more readied for publication: Four Seasons and The Rain's Journey. Western Diwan is a collection of 52 poems spanning 50 years of his living in the US with childhood nostalgia for Iran. The central theme in these poems is love for arts, people, women, nature, and passage of time. He has used various forms- verse libre, sketch, haiku, epigram, and long narrative long poems. He thinks: Poetry is the capture of the transient moment in an eternal expression for education, pleasure, and history. As Hafez of 14th century said, poetry is the "recording in the World's chronicle;" a moment that repeats itself whenever a reader looks at the poem. Baran's poetry is a bridge between the present and the past. The past includes his childhood, his three millennial Iranian culture, and his youth studying in the West. He is a lyrical poet, whose work has been frequently published in the literary sites in Iran, North America, and Europe. His poetry is based on love imagery, full of memories of the bygone days in the motherland. The rhythm in his poetry reverts to the syllabic meters of oral, folkloric and ancient poetry, in contrast to the Near Eastern quantitative and qualitative metrics, adapted by the medieval Persian poets. This is also different from English rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables organized into feet, aka patterns. His language is rich with alliteration, rhyme, and visual description. His poetry evokes all 5 senses. He has a special affinity for the environment. Currently he is researching the relationship between the brain and the poetic creativity; sections are being published in various Iranian, Afghan, and Western Web sites. His poems and articles on poetic processes are published in World Literature Today and Iranian Web sites.