“Do the lovers know that when they whisper these poems they are commemorating our love?Do they ever think of you and meor only of themselves?Do they know that I once found a strand of your hairand wore it around my necklike a necklace?That I kiss your handsmore than I kiss your lips?Do they realise that our love and their love are drops in the universe’s ocean of loveand that without any of these drops, the ocean would be less?”

writer, poet, and academic

Kamand Kojouri is a writer, poet, and academic, and a fellow of the Emirates Literature Foundation. She is known for her poetry and prose, and for two poetry collections, The Eternal Dance and God, Does Humanity Exist? Her poems and short stories have appeared in anthologies and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her work has also been featured in El País, The Irish Times, and BBC Persian Television. Her poem “Let My Silence Grow” was later adapted into a chorale composition by Zachary J. Moore and performed internationally, including by the Luther College Nordic Choir.