Poetry and prose that may make you rethink everything you know

Joobin Bekhrad's latest book is a mind-bending exercise in capacity building

Here’s a fact for you: The intergalactic forces of light and darkness, as depicted in the Star Wars films, may very well have have gotten its inspiration from an Ancient Persian religion – the idea behind the battle of opposing forces stemming from Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s first monotheistic religions. 

If that’s the kind of revelation that boggles your mind or spurs curiosity, then Joobin Bekhrad (pronounced Joue-bean Bekh-rad) is a writer you’re bound to find of interest.

Prolific in making connection between seemingly opposing cultures and regions – Iran and the modern West – Bekhrad’s latest takes another approach is encouraging readers to wrap their minds around another perspective. A book of poetry in which he makes an ode to love, loss, and arguably, professes the necessary love for imperfection.

Stars Behind the Sun is the 11th book from Toronto-based Bekhrad. The 42-page book of 25 poems, all titled with Roman numerals (XXV), takes the reader through the poetic recounting of love, loss and the many wonders that fill the experiences in between.

Bekhrad tells me on a video call that some of the poems may only make sense to him. Having read and studied the poems, as a daring enthusiast of the arts, I wouldn’t disagree there’s something about Bekhrad’s poetry that to me is akin to studying a law school entrance exam. It’s a bit mind-boggling and maybe that’s the point in the exercise of capacity-building, to understand and come to our own conclusions.

The title poem “XV” opens: “Little star / Behind the Sun / Invisible again / Without, within / Without her / On your arm” it goes to explain “It was she / She who made / You shine —” and concludes “About to drink / Yourself into / Another Dream” 

One can’t help to draw similarities between the title poem and the character of Icarus in Greek Mythology in the current geopolitical landscape in the battle for more – more land, more influence, more money, more power, and on. Icarus, the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, plunged to his death after getting too close to the sun in his ambitious ascent. Wings made of feather and wax melted and Icarus fell to the sea. Bekhrad’s Stars may be about love and loss, but the metaphors also extend well beyond romance. It’s also about the love we carry for our hopes, our dreams, and the trauma-inducing, gut-churning, mentally-regurgitating losses it sometimes feels like we endure. If we didn’t understand the nuances of this existence, we wouldn’t be human.

Throughout his work, Bekhrad’s research and interpretation of the Persian influences in Western culture – from Game of Throne, the works of Voltaire, Nietzsche as well as the Parsi roots of Freddie Mercury – is almost always very acute and endlessly fascinating. In many ways, his writing is a sophisticated and relatable approach on what those in public diplomacy would call the use of soft power. Cultural diplomacy provides leeway where military strong-arming has so often failed, by way of common currencies like sports, arts, science and food to create peaceful multiculturalism.

In Stars Behind the Sun, as with most of his works, Bekhrad utilizes his unique ability to make us think harder and reconsider the steadfast beliefs many maintain. In turn, we may come to understand and find joy in the journey of our shared humanity, politics and perfection aside.

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