art ~ spirit ~ transformation
e*lix*ir

e*lix*ir #17: Dedicated to the Ten Martyrs of Shiraz
Summer 2024
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Editorial

• Art and Advocacy

Fiction

• The Bluest Part of the Sky by Tanin
• The Lake by Nourin Omidi
• The Rope by Mehrsa Mastoori

Plays

• Tahereh and Jamshid: A One-Act Play by Sandra Lynn Hutchison

Feature

• The Skies She Didn’t See: Paintings & Poetry by Jean Wilkey and Sandra Lynn Hutchison

Letters

• A Letter to Mona from Shiraz by Maava
• A Letter to Mona from Yazd by Bahar Rohani

Poetry

• Soul Garments by June Paisa Perkins

Remembering the Ten Martyrs of Shiraz

• The Patio by Nourin Omidi
• A Free Spirit by Nava Nazifi
• The Flowers of Shiraz: My Spiritual Superheroes by Shadi Tajeddini
• Mona Mahmoudnejad: Through the Eyes of a Child by Kimiya Roohani
• The Other Mona: Forever Seventeen by Mona Shahgholi
• The Flowers of Shiraz: The Story of a Play by Hannan Hashemi
• Free Spirits and Butterflies by Sandra Lynn Hutchison

Prison Stories

• One Stitch at a Time by Sama Khalily
• Where is Hannan Hashemi? by Sandra Lynn Hutchison
• My Thirty-Four Days in an Iranian Prison by Hannan Hashemi

Dreams and Visions

• What Mona Wanted: A Prayer for Resilience by Kimiya Roohani
• I Dream of a Country by Maava
• The Dreams of a Planet Earth Citizen by Shadi Tajeddini
• Iran Will Rise by Taranom

Personal Reflections on Bahá’í Texts

• The Power of Faith in Facing Afflictions by Ghazal

Comics

• Ruhi & Riaz by Sama Khalily

Announcements

• More Prison Poems — A Tale of Love by Mahvash Sabet


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Jean Wilkey

Soul Garments

(for Mona Mahmoudnejad)

by JUNE PAISA PERKINS

(i)

She’ll set the world on fire if we let her spirit be!
Dreaming of colored robes in a box,
she draws closer to the flames.

She sails the ocean of His words, thirsty for sacrifice,
says, Mother give those hugs to others than me,
Divide that gift of fruit so everyone can share...

She prays that her sisters will recall the scent
they most love, at the very moment of death --
She’ll set the world on fire if we let her spirit be!

(ii)

Prayerful solitude at midnight,
sweet vectors of fortitude,
prophetic drawings,
unpacking soul garments
from dream boxes,
subtracting self,
dividing gifted fruit to share,
the press of her sisters’ fingers
as they look through prison glass --
Then a defiant flight from gravity,
the earth!

Those seeking to divide will fail,
have not calculated
the divine equation...