2 poems by Mansour Noorbakhsh. WCLJ poet-in-residence

The Meaning of Joints

The night,
grapples with the buttons of my garment 
in the repetition of a battle between the meaning of 
my fingers and the numbness of the cold.

I am not afraid of death
My fear is the repetition of death and its multiplication.
I have died many times before
in the teeth stained with blood and pain that 
have repeated a single word.
Like the farewell kisses.

Like chewing the cold
and the tremble of 
numb fingers.
That prevents recognition of 
the buttons from the night.





Beyond The Flight
A poem for Kian Pirfalak and all children of the "Woman, Life,       Freedom" movement. 

In the fence of darkness
where only the bullets
have chance to shine
the singing of a child
opens the windows
and resonates in the depths of life.

Bullets buried his hands
and his eyes too.

What was never imprisoned 
by the walls of darkness
was his song for those trees 
that will be growing in the light.

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Mansour Noorbakhsh writes poems and stories in both English and Farsi, his first language, and has published books, poems, and articles in both languages. His book length poem, In Search of Shared Wishes, is published in 2017. He tries to be a voice for freedom, human rights, and environment in his writings. He presents The Contemporary Canadian Poets in a weekly Persian radio program. Mansour’s poems are published in WordCity Literary Journal, Verse Afire, Parkland Poets, several anthologies, and other places. His poems are translated in Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Serbian, Macedonian, and Chinese. Mansour Noorbakhsh is an Electrical Engineer, and lives with his wife, his daughter and his son in Toronto, Canada. Mansour is WordCity Literary Journal’s Poet in Residence.

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