Motley Kamuka

Wikipedia spells her name Forugh Farrokhzad , pronounced FOR-ugh Far-ROHK-zad. My paperback of Let Us Relive In The Beginning Of The Cold Season compares her to Shakespeare in a quote by Medhi Jami . I hate to say this but I think Farrokhzad gives liberals a template on how to survive four years, to just enjoy your life. Dealing with female desire in Iran. She was sexual. This is a problem in present day Iran. She uses the confessional tone and moves towards the universal.  Her quick biography is that she was married young, had a son and then divorced. Her husband won custody of her son, and she was depressed and got shock therapy. Triumph of the spirit, she fights on and continues, writing poetry books, directing a documentary, living her life. She tragically dies in a car accident at age 32.  NYT: "After the overthrow of Iran’s secular monarchy in 1979, the Islamic Republic banned her poetry for almost a decade. But that censorship only elevated her appeal to new generations of

A young friend in another country said he didn't know what Saturday Night Live was. I know there's a movie out about it called Saturday Night (2024). David Ehrlich is the best movie reviewer I know, here's his take on the movie about SNL. First skit that came to mind was:  Matt Foley: Van Down By The River Jane You Ignorant Slut came to mind. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger . Lisa from Temecula Roseanne Roseannadanna on Smoking Reddit asks what's the best skit. I had to look up quite a few, it's obviously a different generation answering the question now.

From Roxana, p.91, (translated by Firoozeh Papan-Matin) Yet the night was in turmoil, the sea was battering. Fierce ecstasy, never to be fulfilled, howled through this cold clutter of maddened waves in search of an escaped pleasure ... And I realized that I had found peace, amid the ups and downs of the sea's hasty traffickers, like a houseless snail finding a shell. I knew that if I threw the lantern into the sea and interpreted the darkness of the night as no more than my closed eyes—then would I be like the liberated Buddha who passes through pain with an unruffled heart because he recognizes it as the leading warrior of Nirvana. This excellent book  The Love Poems of Shamlu has a supportive essay by Papan-Matin, who is a professor in Seattle at the University of Washington. 

Intrigued by all these religions I'm reading about. Zoroastrianism still exists today, but Mithraism doesn't. The Wikipedia article linked mentioned they are mystery religions . Read about Manichaeism . "Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through Aramaic-speaking regions. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was briefly the main rival to early Christianity in the competition to replace classical polytheism before the spread of Islam. Under the Roman Dominate, Manichaeism was persecuted by the Roman state and was eventually stamped out in the Roman Empire." They believed in secret knowledge from personal direct experiences with the divine. In 240 Mani received from the divine the message not to eat meat, drink wine, or sleep with women. He was influenced by Zurvani

I'm reading The Oasis of Now , a selection of poems by  Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) translated into English. There's a faint ring of Walt Whitman to him, he sings to the multitudes. The bio says he knew some things about Buddhism, which is perhaps fairly rare in Iran, but he died fairly soon after the revolution when things were more open and allowed in Iran. He was also a painter who traveled all over Europe.  I'm really enjoying this poetry book, published in Rochester, by BOA . I couldn't recommend this book more, or this publisher.  I am intrigued by the other poets he's compared to:  Nima Youshij  (1895-1960), Ahmad Shamlou , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales  (1925-2000), and Forough Farrokhzad  (1934-1967) (the one female). My library has a book by Ahmad Shamlou and 2 of Forugh Farrokhzad. She died in a car crash as 32. The link reference has other Persian poets, including  Simin Behbahani (1927-2014). Parvin Etesami (1907-1941). Her mother outlived her by 32 years. She

I consolidated my blogs into this one, and now I want to unconsolidate, split them up again. First I started a movie blog  to put those places. A music one .  I'm going to have to make a music one, because I want this to remain literature, books, reading. Putting politics back onto a politics blog. Today I unfollowed all the political subreddits on Reddit, and I've withdrawn from Twitter. I'm going to vote and not think about politics ever again. That's not true.  Politics is going to my politics blog . Might as well plug my other blogs. My Buddhist one is my favorite.