"I Don't Sit Down to Write Poetry with Thought"; Interview with Sepideh Jadiriy

Sepideh Jadiriy's fifth poetry collection titled "And Under My Skin is Full of Empty Currents" has been published by H&S Media in London, featuring a cover design by Julie Maroh, the French artist and creator of the book "Blue is the Warmest Color." Unlike her other works, this book could not be printed in Iran. However, interested readers residing in Iran can receive a free copy of the book by sending an email to this address: [email protected]. Sepideh Jadiriy is our guest this week. But before our conversation, listen to two poems from her book in her own voice: [audio clip]. In the program "Distant View, Close View," I believe your book, considering its features that place it among "language-oriented" poems, is more mature and less flawed than your past experiences, particularly in playing with words and language to reach a deeper meaning in poetry. Sepideh Jadiriy: I started this path years ago and have moved forward. But whatever it has been, it has not been intentional. My poems are completely spontaneous. I do not sit down to write poetry with thought. However, usually, the more one writes in a style, the more mature one may become in that style. What I mean is that sometimes a poet, when reflecting on their journey, sees that they have given space to deeper experiences in their new work. I see this book linguistically close to the poems of my previous collection "And etc." But I agree with you emotionally. Because I feel that in these two years, during which I wrote the poems of the first section of this book, namely "Prague Poems," I have delved more into myself. That is, the more one thinks about oneself and goes deeper within, perhaps the experiences truly come out deeper than water. Another point about this collection compared to other works of yours that I have seen is the poet's greater freedom in the process of creating the work. It seems that the poet's mental self-censorship, which deals more with sensory, personal, and emotional matters than political issues, has been set aside. The result is poems, words, and images that clearly speak of body and gender. In fact, there has never been self-censorship in my work. The issue is that the poems you are referring to are those that were removed from my previous books. The dates of these poems all go back to past years. I gathered all of them and included them in this book. These poems appear in the last section of the book titled "The Forbidden Ones That Passed." I mean that there have been prohibitions from the past. But for the first section, which is called "Prague Poems," the subject of my poems has influenced this issue because many of the poems in the first section are romantic poems. Well, I believe in eroticism in romantic poetry, and unconsciously, the words and the freedom you are referring to happen. "The necessity for a romantic artistic work to appear natural is that it must have an erotic charge. But not every erotic work must necessarily be romantic; in my opinion, it is not always the case." How do you see the relationship between eroticism in poetry and romantic poetry? Do you consider these two different domains in writing and the experience of writing? My personal opinion is that the necessity for a romantic artistic work to appear natural is that it must have an erotic charge. But not every erotic work must necessarily be romantic; in my opinion, it is not always the case. Many works can be erotic and even have anti-love themes or mock love and romanticism. Such poems are either rarely spoken of by today's poets or are not written at all, even for their personal experiences or for presentation in more private sessions. It usually happens very rarely. What do you think the reason is? Is it due to the fear of being subject to moral judgments or the feeling of futility in this work because the poet thinks they cannot publish it, so experiencing it is not necessary? This happens more in Iran for female poets. For example, I see less that male poets in poetry sessions care much about whether their poetry is erotic. They read whatever it is, of course, if the session's host allows. But for women, the situation is different because unfortunately, Iranian society generally judges people based on the subject of their artistic work or poetry and literature and sees the author in that work. Well, in a society like Iran, this issue can create problems. In European society, it is not. Even if they think that all these things I have written in my poetry are not my personal experiences and that I have written them based on an external topic, it does not create any problems for me. But in Iran, usually, someone who writes very openly and boldly is stigmatized because, in Iranian society, the author is not seen as separate from their work, and they think that all these events have occurred in their life that they are narrating. I personally do not care if someone thinks this way about me, but the reality is that my poems are completely spontaneous, and when I compose them, I do not think about external topics. Sometimes I even think that these are not my poems and words, and I do not know how it happens. Because it is completely spontaneous. For example, the character that is seen from me outside may be very different from what exists in my poems.