{"id":2778,"date":"2018-04-17T13:58:42","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T13:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=2778"},"modified":"2018-04-17T13:58:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T13:58:42","slug":"mournful-meditation","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/mournful-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mournful Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letters to My Father <\/em>by B\u00e4noo\u00a0Zan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Piquant Press, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paperback, $18.50<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A mournful meditation, B\u00e4noo\u00a0Zan\u2019s Letters to My Father<\/em> is a collection of forty-one poems, each charged with the turmoil that\u2019s birthed in the meeting of grief and memory. If taken in one long gulp, its power will sear through you. A few sips of B\u00e4noo\u00a0Zan\u2019s poetry will disperse deep into your soul, relieve your aches, and balm your losses. Its collective experience is disarming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Zan dedicates her second poetry collection to her father, Parviz Ghanbaralizadeh, who passed away in 2012 in Iran, while she was striving to build a new life in Canada. When news reached Zan, she chose not to visit the funeral or memorial services held in her father\u2019s honor. Removed from the scenes of bereavement taking place in her hometown, Zan turned her pen to a flowing, emotional outpouring of verses that expressed what was left unsaid and explored their complex relationship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The painful reality that strikes out possibilities to reconcile or reconnect with the one who has passed on is central to this collection. The persona\u2019s anguish makes her wish for death and doom, in hopes that it\u2019ll bring her the reconnection she desires, a reconnection that wouldn\u2019t be possible in life:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you ever loved me<\/p>\n

wish me a death so final<\/p>\n

it would rescue the heart<\/p>\n

from separation<\/p>\n

If you are still somewhere<\/p>\n

waiting for me\u2014<\/p>\n

prophesy my doom<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an evocative quality to Zan\u2019s uncluttered and orderly writing style. Stripped down to their ultimate simplicity, the poems aren’t titled, just numbered, focused on the central vision of the poems. The emotions and situations that she probes are accessible to the reader, though laced with deeper complexities, as in poem number 41:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The river<\/p>\n

mourns the ocean<\/p>\n

every time<\/p>\n

memory<\/p>\n

proves shallow<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The brief and bare sentences tie up with clear and distinctive imagery to offer a profound view of some of the most disquieting situations in life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an intimacy that seeps into the imaginings of Zan\u2019s poetry, creating a soulful and transcendent narrative. With grief as a catalyst, Zan explores the posthumous reconciliation of a father and daughter, and couples it with a spiritually charged, introspective layer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Throughout the collection, the persona tries to connect life with death, both functioning as depictions of herself and her father. She traverses the realities of what death represents, linking everything back to herself. Her father\u2019s death becomes a mirror that reflects the turmoil within her. The collection\u2019s opening poem evokes a sense of longing that sets the tone:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I want you back<\/p>\n

from the red of brown<\/p>\n

to the blue of green<\/p>\n

back from the phallus of death<\/p>\n

to the womb of life<\/p>\n

from unknown harmony<\/p>\n

to known horrors<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The poem circles back to the verse, \u201cLeave me with you \/ as death with life,\u201d an idea that the persona often reconstructs to portray an attachment that exists beyond death. She tries to search for her own emotional equilibrium in her father\u2019s absence and recognizes in herself the reverberations of the bond they shared while he was alive. She tends to look for a rendering of herself in what existed of him. In poem 11, she writes:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You were<\/p>\n

a ghazal<\/p>\n

meeting qasidas<\/p>\n

from<\/p>\n

your blood-land<\/p>\n

I am your epitaph<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She sees herself as a final remnant of his beloved existence. In the consecutive poem, the persona confesses her regret, \u201cI wish I had \/ shared you \/ with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With its emotional depth comes a universal appeal; at a core level, people form connections and experience loss similarly. We\u2019re all made up of stories, and in Zan\u2019s poetry the essence of the story is in moments of being and existing. These moments are powerful enough to resonate with the reader, regardless what their personal worldview may be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One thing that adds to the universal appeal and strength of Zan\u2019s poetry is her alignment of Islamic and Arabian traditions and prophetic stories with the symbolism in western myths. In her poetry she invokes Narcissus, Agamemnon, and Ophelia with the same ease with which she imagines herself as her father\u2019s prayer rug. In poem 30, Zan writes:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If I were your prayer rug<\/p>\n

I would water<\/p>\n

your desert hands<\/p>\n

with golab<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Religious and cultural notions become instrumental in her attempts to understand death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

B\u00e4noo Zan\u2019s previous poetry collection, Songs of Exile<\/em>, was the first to be published in English (Guernica, 2016). Songs of Exile<\/em> touched upon themes that erupt from becoming an immigrant and also addressed socio-political issues related to gender, ethnicity, and colonization. In comparison, Letters To My Father <\/em>is a deeply personal poetry collection, one that must have required bravery on Zan\u2019s part to share with the world. Zan\u2019s poetry is a reminder that the discord caused by shifting ideologies does not have to license the irreparable rupture of our blood bonds. In this, Letters To My Father<\/em> becomes a persona\u2019s cathartic attempt to reconcile with another in death, through poetry infused with life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after moving to Canada from Iran, B\u00e4noo Zan lost her father. Her searing poems reflect on multiple kinds of loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2780,"template":"","categories":[9,139],"tags":[6,584,585,203,290,586,332],"class_list":["post-2778","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-banoo-zan","tag-diaspora","tag-grief","tag-immigration","tag-letters-to-my-father","tag-loss"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMournful Meditation - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/mournful-meditation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mournful Meditation - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shortly after moving to Canada from Iran, B\u00e4noo Zan lost her father. 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