Book Description
Return is a selection of
poems from 1978 to 2005 by Ala Khaki, an Iranian poet and writer, now living in
New England. It is a mirror of emotions, shared universally by many in Diaspora,
reflecting in verse anxieties, hopes, disappointments, the desire to set roots
in the adopted land while longing for the day that dawning of freedom makes a
return to the land of birth possible, and above all, an uncompromising love for
humanity.
About the Author
Ala Khaki was born in Iran in
1955. He was imprisoned by the Shah's regime for his writings and participation
in the democracy movement in 1974 and again in 1975. In 1978, a year after his
second release and following the destruction of his first poetry book, From Here
to Sunrise, by the secret police (some of those poems were later published in
his Farsi chapbook Calling The Dawn in 1994), he left Iran for America after
receiving a tip from a relative with ties to the military that he was on a death
squad list. He now calls New Hampshire home.
Follwoing are
excerpt of some editorial reviews:
"Return is a selection of poems from 1978 to 2005 by Ala
Khaki, an Iranian poet and writer, now living in New England. It is a mirror
of emotions, shared universally by many in Diaspora, reflecting in verse
anxieties, hopes, disappointments, the desire to set roots in the adopted land
while longing for the day that dawning of freedom makes a return to the land
of birth possible, and above all, an uncompromising love for humanity." -
BookSurge
"Here is an exceptionally fine -- refined -- poet, fully
aware of the conventions of great Iranian literature, bringing the full force
of its elegance and power to bear on late 20th century Iranian politics. Most
of us know about the Shah, the Savak, Khomeini, the Ayatollahs, the US
alliance with Sadam Hussein during the Iran/Iraq War -- but we rarely stop to
think of the net effect of all of this turmoil (a nice word for systematic
arrests, murders, brutal executions, disappearances all in the name of
supplying or denying certain commodities to the West) on soul of a nation
whose poetic traditions are at least 2,000 years older than ours." - by John
Michael Albert
"The ancient Romans had a word, in English,
magnanimity, which translates into greatness of spirit, greatness of
soul. And it is this monumental virtue that
informs the pages in this volume." - David “Doc”
Cote
