Mehran Hashemi: A Poet’s Journey from Silence to Words
I was born and raised in Iran, in a neighborhood where dreams often felt out of reach. Financial struggles shaped my childhood, and from an early age, I learned what it meant to fight—not with fists, but with resilience.
“”blowing bubbles
takes me back to my childhood
when i was immersed
in sweet reveries
dreaming of blooming hope
when the world’s vastness
could be grasped by my little hands
and i wasn’t burdened
by the sun that never sets””
As a student, I excelled academically, but beneath my achievements lay an unbearable weight of stress and anxiety. Something inside me whispered that I was different, that I was meant for something greater, yet the world outside wasn’t so kind. Bullying was a constant in my life—first as a child, then as a teenager in high school. My body felt weak, not just because of the torment I endured but also because of my fragile health. Chronic sinusitis and severe allergies kept me in and out of hospitals, making antibiotics a staple in my life. I was a slender, self-conscious boy, struggling with deep insecurities. I attended therapy for over a decade to navigate stress, social anxiety, and panic attacks. But no matter how hard I tried, I felt like I was drowning in a world that refused to understand me.
“”depression is like a dark umbrella
that doesn’t let me
face the rain””
Then, in 2019, everything changed.
Scrolling through Instagram, I came across a short, powerful poem. Just a few words, yet they carried an entire universe of meaning. Something about it resonated deeply with me, sparking a desire to create something just as meaningful. I started writing poetry—simple, short verses that captured my emotions, struggles, and hopes. At first, I hesitated to share them, but when I did, people connected with my words in ways I never imagined.
“”if i am a poet today
it’s because i once gazed at the moon
and she reminded me
that i carry a sun within””
For the first time, I felt seen. Writing became my sanctuary, a place where my thoughts—homeless for so long—finally found a home. The love and support I received encouraged me to keep writing, first on Instagram and then on other platforms. The more I wrote, the more my audience grew.
“”when nobody was there
to listen to me
i noticed the ears of a paper
silently wanted to hear
so i talked
then the world listened””
In 2023, I took the leap and published my first poetry book, Light Needs Darkness to Shine. The response was overwhelming. After that, I published Drinking Ink (2024), Caged Hope (2024), and Homeless Thoughts (2025).
My poetry was also featured in Poets Straight from the Notes App (2024) and Musing Around at Midnight (2024). I later collaborated on My Sad is Sadder Than Yours (2023), an art-graphic poetry book, and Thunderstroke (2025), a poetical memoir.
After publishing Light Needs Darkness to Shine, I began receiving significant recognition. I was featured in a paperback magazine, interviewed by several online platforms, and had articles written about my journey and my work. The attention and appreciation from readers and fellow creatives fueled my desire to keep writing and sharing my voice.
Today, I continue to write, not just for myself but for those who feel unseen, unheard. I write for the child who, like me, felt too small for the world, for the dreamer who just needed one sentence to remind them they mattered.
“”i know life can be ugly
but remember
everything has a reason
like when you’re hopeless
and your head is down
you see a beautiful flower
on the ground that you couldn’t find
through the sky”
Because sometimes, all it takes is a single poem to change a life.
This story is about the adventures of a boy in his dream. Actually, I wanted to write about something else. Unfortunately, my heart was not drawn to them. So, I started. 3, 2, 1… We left.
There lived a boy who was 6-7 years old, beautiful, medium height, with long hair and a small heart full of love, who was not like anyone else in the world. His real name was Milash. Every day the boy saw his favorite reindeer, Nerri, in his dreams and played with him. But this time, Milash faced scary and cruel events in his dream. That’s what happened in the dream.
The sky was dark, the wind was blowing. It looked like bad things were going on. Everything is covered with white snow. It’s quiet like pouring water around. Something was not visible. At that moment I called Nerry. There was no sound. After a moment I saw its branches in the distance. My deer was running towards me. I started running out of joy when I saw him. I looked and saw that Nerry was being chased by robbers. Knowing this, my heart stopped for a breath. Then I made my legs faster than before. But I couldn’t make it. They took my joint away before I left. I couldn’t hold back my tears after this incident. Because he was my companion since childhood.
Then I caught myself and began to follow the tracks of the robbers. I have no choice. Missing him tormented me every moment. Then I walked without stopping until the tracks were gone. Finally, I saw that they had entered a cave for the night and were talking. Then I waited for them to sleep. They slept. I slowly walked over to open the door to my caged steam room. I opened it now. A man woke up. Then the rest woke up and attacked. In the end, I was full, I threw everything and ran away.
The afternoon ended well. I am happy about it.
Khomidjonova Odina is a student of the 8th grade of the creative school named after Erkin Vahidov
Black and white photo of a covered wagon with two women inside and two young men walking in front in breeches and shirts and scarves. The women are in skirts and coats with covered hair.
Examine a close reading of Brechtian theatrical drama “Mother Courage and Her Children”.
“We’re doing an honest trade in ham and linen, and we’re peaceable folk” exemplifies Mother Courage’s mercenary enterprise that distinguishes her entrepreneurial proprietorship as the chief source of bread winning for the fulfilment in familial obligations. Sustenance of livelihood and survival hood is solely dependent upon the provisions of money generated from the returns of investment in the trade cart. The sergeant’s feigning of interest with the belt buckle and the recruiter’s abduction of Eiliff gobsmacks the dumb girl Kattrin, who gesticulates wildly. Eventually years follow and Eiliff is commissioned for pilferage and thievery of cattle from the supply wagons of the settlers.
Eliff’s “The Song of the Girl and the Soldier” is a notebly sung in chorus for the valour and bravery, gallantry and heroism in the office of the veteran general. However ousting of protestant by the Catholics implicates measures of extradition policies to exterminate the defenestrated regime. Catholic reinstatement to power is imminently catastrophic for these peaceable folks as soon as allied forces have been defeated by them. Mother Courage’s masquerading with chameleon stance and camouflaging Kattrin in ashes; Yuvette’s fastidiousness to wager a ransom price at the behest of Mother Courage to take over the custody of Swiss Cheese occur as an after effect of the repercussions. Mother Courage’s profit satisficing initiative forlorn recognition Swiss Cheeses’ cadaverous corpse ushered by the crusaders of Catholicism. “The Song of the Great Capitulation” is caroled by Mother Courage for her nonchalance and lackadaisical demeanor in involving herself into a court martial trail. “I changed me mind. I ain’t complaining” propounds her expostulation in refraining from alleging the battle.
Black and white photo of a covered wagon with two women inside and two young men walking in front in breeches and shirts and scarves. The women are in skirts and coats with covered hair.
Nonetheless, Mother Courage snatching of the looted overcoat of the soldier and her preceding denial in offering clothes to bandage wounded crusaders subverts her bourgeois mercenary identity. Kattrin’s brandishing of her mother with the plank and the chaplain’s exploiting of the wardrobe outfit resurrects the impresario of veteran insignia. The braggadocio of Mother Courage is ameliorated by Kattrin’s uprising to feminist womanhood as reflected in the maternity caregiving to an orphaned destitute. Mother Courage is truly the distinct hyena of the battlefield in relegating pacifism to ruining her business. “War be damned” is inverted by Mother Courage through her militaristic stance to bolster profits. Painstakingly the male survivor Eillif is implicated in war crimes during peace treaty coalition and trailed to justice.
Ultimately Mother Courage and Kattrin are harboured to the brink of existentialism and grave inhumanity befalls upon their gothic macabre. “Once fertile areas are ravaged by famines, wolves roam the burnt out towns…Business is bad, so there is nothing to do but beg.” Mother Courage’s reclaimed womanhood and feminist body polity consciousness transcends patriarchy and masculinity as reflected in abjuration of employment in chaplain’s tavern. The heartwrenching predicament of Mother Courage and Kattrin as harrowing survivors envisions utopian legacy of peasantry and peasanthood, “Happy are those with shelter now/ When winter winds are freezing.”
Mother Courage is alien to religiosity and ideologies and fosters ambivalence towards adversarial circumstances for her entrepreneurship. A formidable quester of wartime profiteer, striking, bargaining, lying and cheating to earn her survival. Brecht’s idolization of Mother Courage’s personae cherishes transcendental triumphalism of Christianity: “hatred against the sin but love for the sinner”. Brecht’s heroine is a stalwart embodiment of craftiness, shrewdness, canniness and resourcefulness.
Brecht chastises and lambastes Mother Courage’s inhumanity towards the dead body of Swiss Cheese. This inevitably chilling climax crystallizes theatre audiences, readers and critics of modern European drama. Despite dumb, Kattrin, the guardian of goodness’ precautionary vigilance of crisis and her sacrificial martyrdom symbolizes an astounding climax without deus ex machina. Yuvette’s transformation into a colonel’s lady from a camp whore epitomizes pragmatism and materialism unlike other characters and their mise-en-scenes.
Unlike Mother Courage, Yuvette’s femininity and womanhood salvages to the brink of prosperity by discarding the world of squalor. Terrifying and endless struggles of Mother Courage breaches armistice and beseeches war feeding enterprises. Brecht’s characterization of soldiers and generals, stewardesses and butlers, harlots and whores, peasants and tradesmen harnesses twentieth century realistic traits of surviving a doggerel world. Warmongers are victimizers whose fatalistic preying dawns upon the human beings possessing virtues as pacifists and abolitionists of wars. Emotional appeal and theatrical flair of the tragical drama is the exposition of crucial roles cast by the victimized and traumatized as embodied by Mother Courage and Her Children.
Further Reading, References and Endnotes
Brecht On Theatre Translation by John Willett, From the Mother Courage Model, pp. 215-221
Five Great Plays Mother Courage and Her Children pp. 207-215, Stephen Unwin, A Guide to the Plays of Bertolt Brecht, Bloomsbury.
The interview with Michael Poryes turns into a script
“No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.” (Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder)
But the idiot who leaves a star, rest assured that a real star will never allow his return, I say.
Here is how my interview with the great Michael Poryes begins.
But it is certainly not a traditional interview. It cannot even be called an interview.
It could be defined as an interesting exchange of experiences, of work and life, where the theme of fame opens many treasure chests, often dramatic.
I therefore “transgressively” skip all the questions that I should have asked the immense screenwriter and filmmaker Michael Poryes and begin to talk about Billy Wilder, his daughter Victoria Wilder, who I met recently, my contact with Gloria Swanson and still on Billy Wilder, for me the number one director in the history of cinema.
An embarrassing statement, however, since Federico Fellini was my mentor.
Michael thinks of Billy Wilder’s films, he can’t remember the title of Wilder’s most theatrical film and asks me.
I : “The most beautiful film on the history of cinema and absolutely the most beautiful film in the history of cinema?” – I answer him – “… is “Sunset Boulevard”.
The film par excellence about fame, the theme of Poryes’ most famous work, the four time Emmy nominated “Hannah Montana”.
Poryes answers me by telling me that Hannah Montana deals with the theme of fame, which instead in “Sunset Boulevard” is fiercely the protagonist.
There is a common aspect between me and Poryes: we are both famous, with the problems of those who are famous and we both try to take fame away from our lives, invaded by fame.
Michael tells me that, coincidentally, his son, yesterday, made him understand how his life can potentially be controlled by his fans, since his information is everywhere on the Internet.
Hannah Montana fans are many and each fan wants to penetrate the life of their star, Michael Poryes, the creator of Hannah Montana!
What do fans really want from their idols? A vast and delicate topic this.
One of the goals of the fans, often linked to unawareness, is to deprive the star of his golden mantle that he shows off on stage, to, in the end, reverse the roles. But how? Just like in: “Les Bonnes” by Jean Genet, where the star is physically killed, his power is killed, his magnetism and seduction is dethroned, to absurdly reinforce his incorporeal icon, which is the only thing that matters to a fan. Atrocious. And this is what happened to me now: someone has penetrated my orbit and attracted by my magnetism towards my core, the “metaphorically” mortal clash is now underway. Who will survive?
At this point Michael talks about Miley Stewart , a teenager who wants to become a pop star. As her success grows, her friends start to look at her differently. And when she, because of her success, moves to Malibu, Miley wants to change everything: she divides her personality between being a star and herself and so creates Hannah Montana. Miley wants to be treated as herself. I reply that this is why I can’t live my life and Michael tells me that you never know if someone is treating you genuinely or treating you to get something from you or they are around you to show off to their friends that they are your friends and never treat you honestly.
Michael tells me that he has had friends since he wasn’t famous and they have never changed with him. And he asks me if it is the same for me. I reply yes, but mine is an unconvincing “yes”, since the energy of the few friends I have is captured by all the others who treat me for my fame.
Michael says that his career has had notable ups and downs, as he assumes mine has also been. Yes, my career has also had moments of glory and moments of oblivion, like the character of Norma Desmond.
And Michael adds that it is very difficult to navigate between people who are your friends, but who are also friends of your fame and people who are just your friends.
All this gets complicated when you are a teenager. You have to understand if your parents use you for the money you produce. I quote Amy Winehouse where the family does not seem interested in Amy, as a human being, but to be interested in her, as long as Amy produces money, so Amy, feeling useful, abuses drugs, to keep up with her shows, and then dies for this and for a love lived in this context. Atrocious. They talk about Lady Gaga and her mother, Sophia Loren and her mother, Cher and her mother. The theme again moves away from Hannah Montana, but the background on fame broadens.
I feel it is right to make known my dramatic relationship with my father, in relation to my fame, obtained, as with Miley Stewart/ Hannah Montana, as a teenager.
My father, a powerful lawyer, destroyed my friendship with Federico Fellini, forbade RAI TV, the Italian state television, from working with them, completely tore me away from my world of entertainment which for me was life, and I, in short, found myself alone, collapsed on the floor of my house in the grip of a powerful depression that isolated me from everything, everyone and even from myself, a depression fueled by my father for years, while Fellini called me for his films and my father tore those vital calls, as oxygen, from my life, because they would have given me back my fame, now in agony like me!
Michael is struck by this dramatic story of mine: because of my fame, my father literally rejected me as a son and punished me for no longer being his son Federico, for having become Wardal! Atrocious.
Only after my father’s death, little by little, without strength and disappointed by everything, I was collected out of pity by a great playwright who imposed me once again on the great stage and when I heard the loud applause of the audience, forgotten due to my long absence, I said to myself, with tears in my eyes, while the curtain fell: “Wardal, listen! You can no longer leave your audience, since it is the only one that loves you and will always love you! Courage, Wardal, you are not guilty of being Wardal! You see, they call you back for the applause! And then, Wardal return to the stage and be Wardal forever! ” .
I was sorry, really, to have vented with the great Michael Poryes, but it was inevitable: the themes of his Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana are so close to mine! Since long ago, now, forever.
Michael comments on how slippery our world of entertainment is, repeating that the anchor for him are true friends that Michael has because he is whole, intact: Michael has never been contaminated by his fame.
That’s why Michael has the same friends as always who have never changed with him, because Michael has never changed. Michael believes in friendship, where fame has no access. Another problem in our entertainment industry is people who want fame without wanting to study, without any preparation that deprives the possibility of believing in something and there is the absence of authenticity since, with my personal experience, I have often seen scripts presented as originals that were instead totally copied from famous scripts, never well read, that were authentic flops.
Another aspect of our entertainment world is that it always requires us to be reborn when we do not feel the need, to renew ourselves when we do not feel the need, to change when we do not feel the need and it takes a continuous “Metamorphosis” to sell, a “product” forced to be born?! A show that I am writing is called “Metamorphosis” and I will share it with Michael, since I know that he is an authentic artist, an authentic person.
A great and current initiative of Poryes is to have rewritten the story of Al Kamilah, immortalized in the non-fiction film: “Al Kamilah the miracle filly” by Angela Alioto directed by Christopher A. Salvador , into a children’s picture book . The story that has fascinated and still fascinates social media is that of a filly for which no one wanted to try anything to save her life and Angela Alioto, on the contrary, trying everything and believing in the miracle, after months and months of dedication and love, saved her life. The book will be released soon illustrated. Poryes believes in believing and, in my opinion, believing only takes place in genuine, honest, authentic beings and that belief can produce miracles.
Michael Poryes, recently becomes very popular also in Italy by Sky TV for his TV series called: “Home, Sweet Rome”, which broadcast by Max an enhanced streaming platform from Warner Bros has obtained in 2024 a huge success also in the USA. “Home, Sweet Rome” is a comedy that has totally interested the Hannah Montana audience, since like Hannah Montana it focuses on the teenager Lucy, played by Kensington Tallman, who changes her life and moves from California to Rome with her father and in with her stepmother, Francesca, who is an Italian pop star! The theme of fame reappears again, but it is less evident and everyone identifies with Lucy, immersed in a new life, in a new culture. Wonderful scenarios of the city of Rome open up with the irresistible glamour of Italian fashion and Roman life that my mentor Fellini immortalized with his most famous film “La dolce vita” and where the air of Fellini remains at the Trevi Fountain, in Via Margutta, at the “Canova” and “Rosati” bars in Piazza del Popolo where I used to go with Fellini and now it seems like I’m having a coffee with Lucy.
Synchronized Chaos Magazine expresses our sorrow for the lives and property lost in the Los Angeles wildfires. We invite people to visit here to learn about how to send cards of encouragement to fire crews and to donate books to replace school library collections that have burned.
In March we will have a presence at the Association of Writing Programs conference in L.A. which will include an offsite reading at Chevalier’s Books on Friday, March 28th at 6pm. All are welcome to attend!
Contributor Eva Petropoulou Lianou shares the Caesurae Collective Society’s call for submissions of poetry about consciousness.
The anthology seeks to weave a fabric of poetic expressions that resonate with the theme of consciousness—exploring the mind, the self, and the infinite cosmos—weaving together poetic voices that reflect on what it means to be aware, alive, and interconnected. Submissions due February 10th, 2025,information here.
Also, World Wide Writer Web invites submissions of short stories for their annual contest. Information here.
Finally, contributor Chimezie Ihekuna seeks a publisherfor his children’s story collection Family Time. Family Time! Is a series that is aimed at educating, entertaining and inspiring children between the ages of two and seven years of age. It is intended to engage parents, teachers and children with stories that bring a healthy learning relationship among them.
This issue explores how we see and interpret our world through pieces that draw our attention to various focal points and take a closeup or wider angle view.
Some people zoom in on a particular place or image, using that as a meditation to begin deeper thoughts.
Sayani Mukherjee evokes an island’s lost grandeur through describing historical ruins while acknowledging the destination’s current reality. Student group 2123, from Uzbekistan, contributes a group reflection on their trip to Samarkand.
Dario creates a musical combination inspired by the complex culture of New Orleans. Kylian Cubilla Gomez’ photography focuses in on bits of play and whimsy in toys and in daily life.
Precious Moses draws on the West African iroko tree as a symbol of maturity and strength in hard times. Rahmat A. Muhammad expresses hope through the birth of a young sister in a world touched by darkness and pain.
Mashhura Usmonova expresses gratitude for her teacher and for education, which has allowed her to write as a container for her emotions.
Dr. Jernail Singh offers thoughts on poetry: how he appreciates cohesion and meaning as well as pretty language. Noah Berlatsky gives a dramatic take on the excision needed for the creative process. Daniel De Culla offers up a satirical and humorous take on writing generated through artificial intelligence as Texas Fontanella blasts the firehose of words and letters in our general direction. Jerome Berglund and Shane Coppage’s collaborative haiku include humor and clever twists of phrase.
Jacques Fleury poetizes about how knowing vital history can protect you from being erased by others’ fear or hatred.
Maria Miraglia, as interviewed by Eva Petropoulou Lianou, speaks to the importance of literacy and education in world peacemaking efforts.
Loki Nounou calls out a culture of sexism in which violating women’s rights and their bodies becomes normalized. Narzulloyeva Munisa Bakhromovna highlights the critical need to stamp out global corruption.
Mahbub Alam laments the killing in Gaza and hopes that everyone who dies makes it into a better place. Graciela Noemi Villaverde also mourns the destruction in Gaza, personifying the land and culture into a living being to highlight its pain and beauty. Lidia Popa speaks directly to the heart and conscience of the world in her call for peace in Gaza. Maja Milojkovic revels in the beauty of peace, for Gaza and everywhere. Wazed Abdullah honors the quiet and dignified resilience of Gazans as Don Bormon affirms that the place will recover and heal.
Laurette Tanner charts and maps her journeys, hoping this wisdom will carry over into developing ways to lessen the suffering of the homeless.
Shoxijahon Urunov inspires us to protect the tenderness of our hearts. Nilufar Anvarova’s piece encourages us to follow our hearts and show kindness to each other. Eva Petropoulou Lianou expresses her human vulnerability and desire for understanding and healing. Mesfakus Salahin’s poem speaks to love but also to mystery: how complex we all are and whether we can truly know another.
Stephen Jarrell Williams crafts haiku vignettes on the search for bits of hope and connection in a large modern cityscape.
Mashhura Usmonova expresses gratitude for her teacher and for education, which has allowed her writing as a container for her emotions. Raxmonova Durdona offers up a tender tribute for a caring and deceased uncle.
Maria Teresa Liuzzo’s poetry illuminates deep feeling: passionate love and the inevitability of human suffering. Mykyta Ryzhykh digs deep for meaning in a world littered with death as Orzigul Sherova urges readers to make the best use of their limited time. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa also encourages making the most of life, holding onto faith and hope in a confusing world.
Scott C. Holstad explores themes of disillusionment, introspection, and the search for love and meaning in life. Tagrid Bou Merhi’s elegant words wander through a quest for identity and meaning in a seemingly empty world. In a semicomic short story, Bill Tope fears losing memory and mental capacity. J.J. Campbell writes of numbness, aging, and loss. He connects with others, but even these interactions are tinged with sadness, longing, and thoughts of mortality.
Audrija Paul tells the story of a heart broken when a person reads more into a relationship than is there. Taylor Dibbert describes a relationship that ended as impulsively as it began. Z.I. Mahmud explores generational family dysfunction in his essay on Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts.
Chris Butler’s short poems probe themes of identity and love and our relationships to nature and technology.
Alex S. Johnson proffers a mythic tale where a hero foils the unholy plots of power-hungry gods and wild natural forces.
Rustamova Muqaddas relates twists of fate on a hiking trip, the uneasy balance of humans and wild nature.
Joseph Ogbonna writes of the majestic richness of the Himalayas as Gadoyboyeva Gulsanam describes the power and transience of a rainstorm. Ilhomova Mohichehra conveys the joy of children playing outside on a snowy day. John Brantingham’s short story shows a couple re-evaluating how much they have in common while watching muskrats go about their business.
Mark Young’s surreal poetry touches on climate change, politics, nature, and job hunting, as Su Yun’s work explores time, nature, identity, and memory.
Duane Vorhees’ work addresses life, death, and the physical and sensual aspects of our existence with wit and humor. Marjona Jo’rayeva Baxtiyorovna offers blessings for weddings as Nate Mancuso’s tough and ironic gangster tale takes place in the world of calm seniors and pickleball. Alan Catlin presents sets of poems in three parts, each looking at aspects of aging, nature, and art.
Tom McDade braids vignettes and images from life together with artworks from different eras. Peter Cherches’ vignettes present character sketches of people on journeys, literal or emotional.
Reading this issue is a journey of its own, and we invite you to savor these contributions.
