Author ORCID Identifier
Abstract
This poetic inquiry traces certain aspects of my identity as the daughter of an Iranian immigrant growing up in the United States. I use autobiographic life writing (Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, Leggo, 2009) to lay out (some of) the bones of a larger personal and family story, followed by a suite of poems addressing some of the mysteries, wonderments, gifts and reckonings that I am left with—and which are inherent to—my misplaced, scattered family history and lineage. Although my father shared little about his life in Iran before coming to the U.S., with the help of other relatives I have gleaned a few key details that reveal a sense of Iran the place, the culture, and our family history there, encircled by my own layered longings to experience and know all of this myself firsthand. Part imagined-travelogue, part memoir, this poetic inquiry embraces the idea that even things that are lost, never known, or left behind are part of a beautiful mosaic that resonates through time and place, telling stories of ancestry, memory, language, migration, and the legacies that endure.
Recommended Citation
Borhani, Maya T. E.
(2022)
"Dreaming my Ancestors: A Poetic Inquiry into Longing and Legacy,"
Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/atj/vol7/iss1/11
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