Mahnaz Badihian (Oba), poet, writer, and dentist, grew up in Iran with the poetry of mystic poets such as Rumi, Hafez and Khayam and has

In the middle of Westwood Boulevard’s Little Iran with its multiple kabob restaurants, Persian pastry shops with decadent cakes in the windows and Persian bookstores

Bluebells of Taurus bloom when daffodils are dead giving life to new bulbs in hiding perhaps to show on a different date And all shades

Flowing through time with our eyes wide open and looking around at things to see, Talking to people who may be happy or sad and

The longest War standing between us Hangs like an impossible breath through immovable cracks in the concrete Through the eyes filled with pure holes The

i like where my mind goes when i close my eyes imagination giving me wings to fly last night in his castle beyond all mountains i dined

I am a 16 year old Persian boy living in London and missing Iran. I wrote this poem, which I think sums up Iran's effect

From “Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora”, edited by Persis Karim, (University of Arkansas Press, May