Bread and Shame
                                                          
I open my eyes but 
I do not see the world.

I see a child 
dreaming of rain
in a thirsty desert 
that has forgotten 
the moment.
And the song of its spring 
wraps itself 
in the cedar-shape-skirts
of little girls, forgotten in
a thousand-years-old-maze design
that has forgotten smiling.

The little children
that have never seen 
themselves.

That have never tasted
love but shame,
impregnated with 
the smell of bread.

I open my eyes and 
I do not see myself






 Mine, Ours

The obscured myself
dribbles as a poem 
from a melting iceberg 
of the ritual patterns. 

Let me feel slaked
after feeling my thirst.
And touch the clouds 
with my full passions.

Let me feel my earthy veins.

Eloped and unconscious
like the flakes of a destroyed
warship after a repetitive 
battle moved with ebbs
I feel the earth, the growing
plants, drizzles, and sunshine.

Poem plucks me 
to replant 
somewhere that I feel 
it’s ours, mine.

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Mansour Noorbakhsh writes and translates poems in both English and Farsi, his first language. He tries to be a voice for freedom, human rights and environment in his writings. He believes a dialog between people around the world is an essential need for developing a peaceful world, and poetry helps this dialog echoes the human rights. Currently he is featuring The Contemporary Canadian Poets in a weekly Persian radio program https://persianradio.net/. The poet’s bio and poems are translated into Farsi and read to the Persian-Canadian audiences. Both English (by the poets) and Farsi (by him) readings are on air. This is a project of his to build bridges between the Persian-Canadian communities by way of introducing them to contemporary Canadian poets. His book about the life and work of Sohrab Sepehri entitled, “Be Soragh e Man Agar Miaeed” (trans. “If you come to visit me”) is published in 1997 in Iran. And his English book length poem; “In Search of Shared Wishes” is published in 2017 in Canada. His English poems are published in “WordCity monthly” and “Infinite Passages” (anthology 2020 by The Ontario Poetry Society). He is a member of The Ontario Poetry Society and he is an Electrical Engineer, P.Eng. He lives with his wife, his daughter and his son in Toronto, Canada.