Whenever the human species . . .
becomes hard to bear (with me as the frontrunner), I seek comfort for the unrestful spirit in the sights of the other often much gentler earth-dwellers. Would you care to join me in watching a video on them?
Filed under Reflections
Reblogged: A Poem by Jean-Jacques Fournier
Poetry on a canapé – A journey through Jean-Jacques Fournier’s poetry
I am the colour
Of human disorder,
That shades the stay
Of man made suffer,
While held at bay
Be caused such pallor,
In ominous way
With spurious cover,
Feigning fair play
Thus to be coloured,
With doubtful recover
For fated mankind,
Bearing colour be mine!
© Jean-Jacques Fournier
via “ I Am The Colour ” ~ of human disorder ~ — Poetry on a canapé
Filed under Reflections
. . .a mid-week musing. . .
Photo Credit: Self
Date: Summer 2005
Location: Ada, Sinop – Turkey
Filed under Impulses
Escapism
Since 2003, unending chains of political turmoil have been gaining on speed and intensity in Turkey, my country of birth. The voters and non-voters alike have been rather accepting of the gradually growing brutal violations of their basic human rights. When the head aggressor banned the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day this year, however, reactions from countless people throughout the country rose as a united voice of determined resistance.
Children’s Day is an official holiday that was celebrated yesterday, just like it has been every year since April 23, 1920, “the first gathering of the Grand National Assembly [‘]the Turkish Parliament[‘] (timeanddate.com).” The latest attempt by Turkey’s merciless dictator to erase from history Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, a world leader and the founder of the Turkish Republic – alongside the fruition of his reforms, was met with complete disregard of any authority with which the modern-day iron fist had been privileging himself. Celebrations of and by children yesterday have apparently taken on a life of their own, resembling the innocence of Turkey’s much happier past as numerous newspapers and social media reports document amid news on the most recent Erdoğan Corruption: Government-linked Foundation Caught Up in Turkish Child Sex Scandal. In starkest contrast, ATATÜRK has always been claimed to have prioritized the well-being of children in Turkey to whom he reportedly dedicated the Turkish Republic.
Escapism is what I seek today, a day after the bombardment of overwhelming occurrences having been made public yet once again but with their most severe impact at this time. I knew I had to avoid thinking about the utterly disturbing crime of organized pedophilia; to concentrate instead on the hope-raising sights of happy and carefree children – everywhere in the world, left in peace by adults to embrace their yesterday, their today and their tomorrow. A piece of paper I had torn long time ago from a desk calendar then came to my immediate rescue – a quote from Rachel Carson:
A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.
To the permanence of “that clear-eyed vision” in the hearts of children throughout the world and to the loyalty of their life-long companion: “a sense of wonder”!
Filed under Reflections
. . .a mid-week musing. . .
Photo Credit: Self
Date: Summer 2005
Location: Ada, Sinop – Turkey
Filed under Impulses
Ageism
excessive now?
did one of them hit you in the heart again
do they already find you unnecessary
your shaky voice won’t let me be
with that beloved’s passing
last march had brought me my first regret
of having potted my roots here
my second followed today
when you almost apologized
for having lived this long
honoring your four siblings who died before you
adding how your youngest the only sister
still breathes together with her many grandchildren
whose longevity you then wished upon me
a faint hope for the women in our family
in all your ninety years
you grew up very little dad
loving but a self-centered man
high-maintenance
as the modern label goes
why did you have to catch up with it all
in one day
today
on the phone
i am not like them at all that you know
is that why you reassured me over and over
how well you are doing on your own all alone . . .
thirty years younger but i am unwell too many times
i also grew very little dad
loving but a self-centered one
perhaps not as high-maintenance
nonetheless a daughter of your essence
since the time our pillar collapsed
then much more recently
when you two fell apart
you have shifted to a deepness
he won’t come back he cannot
she however may return soon
it hasn’t been that long yet
why though are you in such hurry
with no fair warning in advance
but plenty of subtle goodbyes to me
are you telling yourself what i used to hear you say
“aloneness is reserved only for God”
please don’t you also rush while i’m so far away
i agonize over your loneliness
how it befell upon you this late in life
did you really not hear me well when i asked . . .
they are merely a few blocks from you
yet choose not to be there
and you already stopped forgiving yourself
while you grant them forgiveness in abundance
i just wish so very desperately
you wouldn’t have to hurt this much
that you could cease to grow up at once
and to forgive me for everything i couldn’t be for you
would you possibly throw in a sixty-year-long hug or two
© hülya n. yılmaz, 2.12.2016
≈ ≈ ≈
Like last week’s poem, also this one appeared as one of my three poetry contributions for the March 2016 issue of The Year of the Poet III, a monthly international anthology published by Inner Child Press, Ltd. and consists of poems by eighteen writers, with between two and three featured new poets each month.
Filed under Poetry
. . .a mid-week musing. . .
Photo Credit: Self
Date: Summer 2005
Location: Ada, Sinop – Turkey
Filed under Impulses
Before love, even death bows down
do you
fear death
i still do
that of my loved ones that is
when the heartbreak is too much to surpass
my memory box takes me by surprise
and i realize . . .
how even death bows down before love
© hülya n. yılmaz, 2.12.2016
≈ ≈ ≈
This poem appeared as one of my three poetry contributions for the March 2016 issue of The Year of the Poet III, a monthly international anthology published by Inner Child Press, Ltd. and consists of poems by eighteen writers, with between two and three featured new poets each month.
Filed under Poetry
…a mid-week musing…
Photo Credit: Self
Date: Summer 2005
Location: Ada, Sinop – Turkey
Filed under Impulses
hülyaswritings 