The warmth was that of love for humanity and, in particular, love for the deprived. In all of these poems, we perceive a poet who breathes with the sufferings of deprived human beings. Poems such as "The Melody of a Prostitute", "The Pickpocket", "The Teacher and the Pupil" and "On the way to the Town" deal with social problems not by way of slogans but through poetic expression. Simin's mind is deeply occupied with sufferings of her compatriots: "How can I put to words the burning sorrow of the loss of your child". As the years go by, we notice that Simin, having chosen the lyric style, does not find the prevalent moulds and rhythms of that style sufficient for the expression of her ideas. She thereby embarks on creating new rhythms capable of carrying the load of broader, more modern ideas. I must point out that the very use of the lyric style, a classical mould, was a sign of Simin's courage and self- confidence, as, at the time, nearly all Iranian poets had adopted the modern styles derived from the works of Nima Youshij, the founding father of modern Persian poetry. Discussion of new meters and rhythms would necessitate a much longer article. Here, I would like to merely point out that these meters emanate from the natural melody of speech. All half-verses are in fact segments of our everyday sentences. For this reason, in most of Simin's lyrics, there is no alteration in the natural structure of the sentence. As a result, Simin talks to us in an informal and friendly manner. It is the "natural" characteristic of these rhythms, their being inseparable form everyday speech, that is partly responsible for the ease of communication and for the friendliness that we feel in Simin's poetry.

Let us return to the contents of Simin's lyrics. Soon after the Islamic Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, war broke out between Iran and Iraq. During the war, Simin's poems continued to reflect the pain and suffering of her compatriots. This can be seen, among other poems, in "I will reconstruct you, O, my homeland", "Is this really the dawn?" and "The folded trouser leg" (this is a reference to a man who has lost a leg). It is during the same war years that Simin writes, in her book "The Key and the Dagger", "We writers and poets have tempered our words with fire, smoke and blood and carried them through ignorance, war and madness. We have compiled history: not the history of you, the war-stricken, the dead, the martyrs, the maimed and the captured, but that of the causes, that of destruction per se, that of why's and how's. You don't believe this? Just read our books."

At this juncture, Simin,s poems are in unison with others'. History gives us the figures whereas poets provide us with tangible facts. Such facts can only be found in poetry. Simin says: "I have put my poems forward for everyone to see. What can they be from the year 1979 onwards? We wrote our books not with ink but with blood. No doubt, the same is true about the works of every other poet". Another poet writes: "But victory will not be yours, O soldier. It will belong to the leaders / your lips were burnt with thirst and your limbs with bullets / but history, this centuries-old liar, remembers only the victors' names / tomorrow, all short-sighted loudspeakers repeat the words of those who stole glory from your corpse / in the same way that they stole bread from your mother."

In poems composed during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's, we notice that there are no beautiful figures of speech in Simin's poems in comparison to her other poems. What we find here, is the simple flow of life. It is as if the weight and the pain of the war years have left no room for the niceties of poetry. However, the imagery of these poems are life-like and natural: "What is the latest? / Today, it is the day of the milk / it is good, and even better than that: / there are cigarettes, tea and milk / what news from the front? / as before, nothing new / mourning those killed by the enemy / screams of the captured enemy." We can see how close these lines are to the realities of life. When Simin says: "Any news from your Joseph? / His letter arrived yesterday", we can perceive, behind the possessive adjective "your", sympathy with a mother, intermingled with pain. This little word gives many shades of meaning to this line of poetry. In another poem, Simin says: "This is the fourth year of the war / the six o'clock news says / they have no intention of making peace / this is the decision of the old leader / there are no young people left / children are the depository for war / this river can flow, slowly, with blood." In another poem, we read: "It is snowing today / a bowl of warm broth would be very welcome / with meat? / Oh, no, what are you talking about? / there is no meat for me / green vegetables? / would not be bad / vegetables in the middle of a frost / yellowing, expensive, polluted / a handful of mud mixed with lots of straw."

One important characteristic of Simin's poems is that, in them, she talks to us from outside ideological frameworks. They are full of humanitarian sentiments. In "The Key and the Dagger", she writes: "The revolution is fruitful. The horrifying photos of the dead, printed in special editions of newspapers, are held by the old and the young." Then we read these verses: "I shout: I can't bear looking at these / the corpse is lying on the ground / along terrifying lines on it / there are dotted lines of bullets." In the same work (The Key and the Dagger), she writes: "In April 1980, when I notice a martial attitude in my students, boys and girls, I am horrified and I say: "O, the child of today / if war is what you want / I am the child of yesterday / to me, war is shameful." About her "Gypsy Melodies", Simin says that she can compose poetry so easily when she thinks of herself as a gypsy. In my view, this is the pinnacle of Simin's poetic language. Here, Simin talks about the oppression suffered by women over past centuries: "The oppression of centuries past / has penetrated your bones / this boil cannot be opened up / by the lancet of time." The Gypsy Melody, Number 11, begins with: "The horseman will come / clean up the house." And ends thus: "When the dawn comes and the judge rules that you shall be stoned to death / do your ablutions in the drops falling from your bleeding heart / before the prayer of love."

Here we return to the humanitarian sentiments manifesting themselves in all of Simin's works. When some Iranian newspapers bitterly attack her, she says: "If the snake is a domestic one / I shall leave it in peace / although it is oppressive / I still love it." This Christ-like selflessness, emanating from love and affection, especially in an epoch characterised by vindictiveness and vengefulness, is beyond the capacity of most human beings.