I S S U E  9

Mina Gorji

Becoming Mineral

those are pearls 

 All things must cool,  

all points of light—
the sun, 
the heart,  
the bird that nests 
on the volcano’s edge, 
lava creeping steadily—
will crystallise—
obsidian, garnet, 
green Vesuvian—  
cold to the touch,  
and still, and bright. 

Ground Ash Ghazal

Out of dark earth, rising
umbels of light yellow flowers. 

 Something forgotten, recalling  
winter’s buried flowers. 

Blue smoke curling
from the crater, scent of flowers. 

Bees in the distance mourning
tenderness of flowers.

Hear the rain, listening 
for tomorrow’s flowers.

Mina Gorji was born in Tehran and lives in Cambridge. She has two collections of poetry with Carcanet, Art of Escape ( 2020) and Scale (2022), described in the Irish Times as ‘a book of deep sonic attention’. She is also an Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, and has published, among other things, a study of John Clare, and essays on rudeness, weeds, prepositions and listening.