Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025 - 35

The small things on which Davoudi centers his
poems sometimes stand in for people - often
family members, clients, or Davoudi himself -
to express their struggles and yearnings. One of
his favorites tells the story of his aunt, who fled
Iran after the 1979 revolution when the young
Mujahideen group she belonged to was massacred
by Khomeini's regime. She escaped to Iraq
and lived there for more than 20 years before
recently being reunited with her son in Europe.
In " Arisha's Neighbor Wall, " Davoudi writes:
I'm Arisha from a village of Khorasan, northeast
of Iran. I grew with the morning breeze
kissing the hills of Arish dressed in daffodils.
It was our anthem of solidarity with liberty
during the previous dynasty, followed by
theocracy. Back then, we could still glimpse
at daffodils but dared climbing the wall
again. I had my own winter pruning, cutting
my fresh limbs fighting for a green sour democracy
where everyone could grow free.
But the dream didn't stand a chance as the
winter of 1979 even banned the daffodils'
dance. They raised the wall with a scaffolding
on top, hanging the defying young
grapevines and those fresh sour grapes protesting
to stay alive.
POETRY IN COMPLEXITY
As much as Davoudi's writing intersects with
his work and life, it also serves as an escape
mechanism. As a poet, Davoudi's ruminations
provide an opportunity to disconnect from the
concerns that occupy us all - job, money, the
news cycle. Temporarily free from these presgf
sures,
he is able to access a
state of mind in which ambition
and concerns for the
future are put aside as irrelevant.
With the quieting of
personal narrative, Davoudi
can perceive a world full of
meaning that transcends
the limitations of an individual's
perspective. " It is
definitely a form of meditation, "
he says.
" When I [began] writing,
I started realizing that it isn't
that we are born to see or
grow to see the world in a
certain way, " Davoudi says.
" It's that we choose to. The
reason why I choose to
write stories about personified objects, trees,
and animals is the purity that comes out of nature.
I use the purity of nature and mix it with
the things that bother me to work through their
complexity. "
Writing poetry isn't just an escape, however. In
many ways, writing also reconnects Davoudi to
his work advocating for refugees. " Poetry requires
a certain tone. It is intended to produce
a specific impact, " he says. " That's exactly what
I do for my clients. If you want to defend an
asylee, you have to tell their story in their declaration,
their affidavit. Often you need to be involved
in writing it because your client is illiterate,
can't speak the same language, and, even if
they are able, they don't know how to tell their
A BAG FULL OF PAPERS gf
By Shayan Davoudi
I am an old bag, second-hand without a strap. Worn, cracked, and empty of coins,
but full of the crumpled papers that my owner calls his " whole life. "
I have no complaints from this heavy lift, but for the nonstop pain of my throat, trapped in
the prison of those fleeing hands from the place my owner calls his " burned homeland. "
Just between us, it's been exhausting next to this sweaty, restless chest, heading towards
the unknown destination that my owner calls " the foreign land. "
But it's no secret that I've burned to death from the fear of losing a piece of paper that my
owner calls his " declaration. "
Ah! I guess it's time to return to this journey. With your prayers behind this fatigued, fearful
body of my owner who strangely calls himself a " refugee. "
story in a way that highlights the points necessary
for their case's success. "
Davoudi recently deployed his legal and poetic
skills to win a particularly important motion. He
had been introduced to Sahar Eskandari, the
daughter of a family friend living in Iran. The
two began a correspondence that led to daily
texting and long FaceTime conversations. The
couple met in Turkey last year, where Davoudi
proposed during a boat ride up the Bosporus,
the strait marking the divide between the East
and West that he has straddled his entire life.
As the boat approached a bridge, the proposal
projected onto it, Davoudi read one of his poems,
" An Empty Notebook Proposing " :
My heart is a notebook with no words to
write.
It has no lines, and all the pages are white.
No beginning and the ending is out of sight.
Will you be my pen to begin writing from
our heart?
Eskandari said yes. In the coming months,
Davoudi will begin yet another immigration process,
this time not in defense of those fleeing
persecution, but as an affirmative application to
eliminate the distance between the lovers.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad at
jconrad@dcbar.org.
Know an outstanding D.C. Bar member you'd
like us to profile in an upcoming issue? Pitch
us at editorial@dcbar.org.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 35

Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025

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