On Long-Nosed Poets and the Lies That Save Us
In early 2022, Pooya began composing poetry, influenced by his personal experiences.
He wrote poems that, without his realizing it at first, broke away from the traditional forms of Persian poetry. For a long time, he had no intention of publishing them.
He considers his poetic voice shaped by the influences of Omar Khayyam, Sohrab Sepehri, and Shel Silverstein. A curated collection of his poems, titled “Please Be a Long-Nosed Poet,” is currently in the pre-publication stage.
The title refers to one of the key and longer poems in the collection, called “The Wooden Puppet.” In this piece, the poet portrays poetry as a grand lie one that, the more masterfully you tell it, the longer your nose (like Pinocchio’s) grows. And yet, this lie is seen as something vital to being human.
