The postures I held for long breaths
by the flow of the Ganges
I did not hold to achieve light
I held no star in sight
as I turned my body into a bow
If I prayed
in my small American flat
where every surface
eyed my lips with contempt
I did not pray for justice
but for this stranger’s voice to drain from me
The art of war
the way of the monk
all the pillars of wisdom
lie submerged in the brittle cold of time
and the current pulls their remnants
into the small enclosure
of one last impatient soul
These profane lines I carve
into the walls of your city
did not dare hope
to deepen your love
but only to lessen the distance
between one name and another
In this way
the dervish has honored the mistakes of his life
Houman Harouni was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1982, and migrated, as a refugee, to the United States in 1997. His father was, for a time, a professional revolutionary, and his mother, for a time, a sociologist of revolution. He is a theorist of cultural transformation. His work moves across philosophy, political economy, history of science, psychology, theater, and literature, culminating in his pedagogy of Active Theory, which he has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 2015. His academic and journalistic writings have appeared in a wide array of publications, including The Guardian, PBS Frontline, The White Review, and the Harvard Educational Review. He has been awarded Fellowships at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. Unrevolutionary Times is Harouni’s first collection of poems.
Vox Populi 
I so agree with John Zeng!
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Wish poetry could shorten the distance between people.
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You don’t think it does?
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Poetry – a shimmering thread from one soul to another
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Lovely line. Thank you!
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