On beginning

The "blog bandwagon" is undoubtedly my favourite one. I don't have a particularly creative or intelligent answer for why I love the blog world so much - I just like knowing we live in a world where reaching out, speaking out and making connections has become so easy. Also, I love not doing work - and reading people's thoughts makes me feel like I'm having a thousand different conversation-breaks every day. So why not add another voice to the din, right?

For now, I just want to leave you with the poem from which my blog title derives its identity. It's a beautiful piece by Ahmad Shamlu whose words lend themselves as shadows in much of what I have thought and will, no doubt, write about.

I hope a pleasant Saturday night awaits you all. Till tomorrow, then.

In This Blind Alley

They smell your mouth
lest you might have said: I love...
they smell your heart.
Strange times, my dear!
And they flog love
by the roadblock.
We should hide love in the larder.
In this crooked blind alley, at the turn of the chill
they feed the fire
with logs of song and poetry
hazard not a thought.
Strange times, my dear!
He who knocks at your door in the noon of the night
has come to kill the light.
We should hide light in the larder.
There, butchers
posted in passageways
with bloody chopping blocks and cleavers.
Strange times, my dear!
And they chop smiles off lips
songs off the mouth.
We should hide joy in the larder.
Canaries barbecued
on a fire of lilies and jasmines
Strange times, my dear!
Satan, drunk with victory
squats at the feat of our undoing.
We should hide God in the larder.