Poetry helped student find a new home in Canada
"Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers," wrote Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Those words are especialy true for U of T Mississauga alumna Nazli Mir Bashiri, whose poetry kept her aloft as she assimilated to an unfamiliar country.
Born in the Middle East, Mir Bashiri moved with her family to Turkey at 12, and then again to Canada when she was 22. Living in three countries and two continents in her short life left her feeling rootless and disconnected. To cope, she turned to writing poems, many of which made it into her recently published first book of poetry.
Mir Bashiri says that the creative process gives her a safe place to sort out her feelings. “I moved around a lot, so it was very difficult. As a kid, it’s hard when you make friends and constantly have to say goodbye,” she says. “When it comes to my feelings, I keep them inside.”
Under her pen name, Naz M.B., Mir Bashiri recently published her first book of poems, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Written in free verse, it collects several years of her work into one volume.
Mir Bashiri’s poem, “I Don’t Belong Anywhere”, is among a number of poems that have won awards in the poetry communities where she submits her work. The piece reflects Bashiri’s feelings of loneliness and displacement.
I Don’t Belong Anywhere
It hurts
to always be,
the pale dot
on the rainbow.
“I’ve been through so many different places and cultures. I felt so lonely—like someone who didn’t stand out and didn’t blend in,” she says. “Writing poetry helped me a lot with that. It was wonderful to create something out of negativity.”
Poetry runs in the Mir Bashiri family—her father, Ebrahim, is also a poet. “In her poems, she talks about her experiences,” Ebrahim says. “Sometimes it was very hard for her.“ He says that reading his daughter’s book was an emotional experience, and moved him to reply with a poem of his own. The pair has since developed a kind of literary correspondence, replying in verse to the other’s work.
The Mir Bashiris take inspiration from their Persian heritage, which has a rich poetic tradition. They have a shared love of poems by Sohrab Sepehri ("Where Is The House Of My Friend?" is particular favourite), the famed Persian poet who used nature imagery to talk about social and spiritual concepts.
Along with her writing, Mir Bashiri says that student life at UTM helped ease her transition to her new country. She knew, even before she left Turkey, that she would attend UTM because of its strong science program. She graduated from UTM in June 2013, earning a biology degree with a double minor in literature and chemistry.
“The people in the Student Admissions and Registrar’s offices were also so wonderful to me,” she says, as were the friendships with her new classmates, and the supportive faculty she met on campus. She cites UTM registrar and director of enrolment management, Diane Crocker, who helped Bashiri to find her way. “I remember standing in a very long line to speak to a representative from the registrar’s office (September 2013) and saw Diane walking to each student standing in the line, with a lovely welcoming smile, and asking them if they needed help and guiding them,” she remembers. “I felt very intimidated by the changes that were happening in my life when I first moved to Canada, but Diane took the time to meet with me. I will always appreciate the kindness that she has shown me,” Mir Bashiri says. “I wouldn’t have been able to adjust as well as I did to without her help.”
She is currently at work on her first novel inspired by her deep love of science fiction, which she was introduced to when she took an elective course in sci-fi literature during her undergraduate studies. Mir Bashiri says she was “raised on Star Wars and Harry Potter,” and cites Edgar Allan Poe and J.R.R. Tolkien among her literary inspirations.
“I love the imaginary world—you can create and control it,” she says adding that she particularly enjoys exploring the human side of villains. She plans to eventually earn her PhD in literature, and hopes to teach science fiction.
Mir Bashiri is writing her second collection of poems. Her most recent work is published in Lantern Magazine a weekly print-based poetry journal from Montreal.