Kamand Kojouri

"Until you see beauty everywhere, in every face, until then, you are blind."

"Whenever you are angry, take a beautiful object in your house and smash it to pieces. The pity you feel for what you have done is silly compared to what you are doing to your mind: taking a sacred moment to be alive and desecrating it by being angry."

"What can I tell you about the alchemy of twins?Twins are two bodies that dance to each other’s joy. Two minds that drownin each other’s despair. Two spirits that flywith each other’s love. Twins are two separate beingsconjoined at the heart!"

"I used to be lost in us. Blurred were the lines that separated us. But now, I see our togetherness in our separateness. I see the you in me and the me in you. We are two independent beings who complement one another like photographs that are beautiful on their own but are enhanced when juxtaposed, creating an altogether new photograph."

"The greatest thinkers have attempted to find who we are where we come from and why we are here but the greatest enigmas to me are how your hair is a lasso that captures the stars how your eyes are lakes that drown my doubts and how your skin is the sun bursting all at once. If I knew these answers I’d know everything for you alone contain the entire universe."

"If all we had were roses, would the thorns then be beautiful?"

"I write our names on the page. What of it, if the paper will be burned?I write our names in the sand. What of it, if the shore will be washed by waves?I write our names on trees that will be cutand benches that will be painted,but what of it?I will keep on writing our namesbecause in this world of ephemera, You and I are the only constant."

"Knowing you,I became mindless. Having wasted previous wishes,I'm riddled with regrets Feeling you,I became hopeless. Adrift in chasms,I surrender to a caress. Loving you,I became love. My universe became love. Planets rotate on love's axes andapples fall to be near their beloveds. No longer a rationalist, I assert my existence with love. I love, therefore I exist,therefore I love."

"I have no use for these other loves. Seal them shut in jarsand place them in the pantry. A reserve of love. Thank them for their love. They are so kind. Perhaps store them in the fridge For others to take. They say love is a panacea. I know it is not. Flakes of snow,no two are alike. When I am down on my knees, hopeless and angry,for the world no longer makes sense,I won't look in the pantry or fridge. It is your hand pressing on my shoulderthat makes me whole,makes me forget. What trouble? What world?"

"Think not of the fragility of life, but of the power of books, when mere words have the ability to change our lives simply by being next to each other."

"Think not of the fragility of life, but of the power of books, when mere words can change our lives simply by being next to each other."

"Before you, nothing. Now you, and everything"

"When, at last, I ceased to be myself, I came to be."

"Your love opened up a whole world that no amount of books or wisdom could ever do."

"We all have the ability to make someone's life better with our love."

"Let us remember to always rediscover one anotherbecause we are forever changing."

"The guilt you felt when you were smiling and others were suffering, the guilt you felt when you were petty with friends and impatient with your parents, when you were rude to your teachers and didn’t stand up for strangers, that guilt is marvellous. It proves that you are human, that you want to be better. Thank this guilt for teaching you, for making you aware. And now endeavour to better yourself. It is a lifelong work to become the person we want to be."

"This poem was meant to be unwritten. But I am writing it now and have thereby changed destiny."

"Let us go where skins are rainbows Enhanced by every hue. Where genders are clouds Weightless and formless through. Let us go where creeds are stars Illuminating our view. Where men and women are one And the in-between are true. Let us go where I am free to love For I cannot unlove you."

"What is life? Life is living in this moment, experiencing and experimenting but experience isn’t life. Life is reflecting and meditating but reflection isn’t life. Life is helping and guiding but philanthropy isn’t life. Life is eating and drinking but food isn’t life. Life is reading and dancing but art isn’t life. Life is kissing and pleasuring but sex isn’t life. Life is winning and losing but competition isn’t life. Life is loving and caring but love isn’t life. Life is birthing and nurturing but children aren’t life. Life is letting go and surrendering but death isn’t life. Life is all these things but all these things aren’t life. Life is always more."