Best Turkish Poems

A strange claim
Of a man of passion
Of kindness
He said
Let the children come to me
For what man would refuse the smile
The innocence of a child
He parted his kindness
His wisdom
His love of all tribes
Animal and man, felt the kindness of his eyes

His tears grew this world
His voice...

Continue reading...

TURK TATIL MIZAH 





FOREST GUMP

Did you hear about old Forest Gump
Went up to do a parachute jump
Gave the rip cord a jerk
Found out it didn't work
Hit the ground with one hell of a thump...

JED

In the care home was an old boy called Jed
Always given some...

Continue reading...

For this Turk Turku is a 1-horse
city but he has got to have horse
sense. He will not be as happy as a peacock in Turkey.
Hindi, the Turk word for turkey, is how we'll call this turkey.
Hindi, when living in Turkey, was a horse
dealer. Today he's...

Continue reading...

The Escape from the Turkish Slavery
(Ukrainian historic folk song)

There broke into the Tartar sprites,
And they captured my daughter, nice,
Marusyna, my daughter, dear,
I remained with one son in fear.
And there came others- my son was enslaved,
And a widow, a poor orphan, I remained.
The third time, they...

Continue reading...

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a triangle of land besieged by countless vessels.
Oh, what dishonorable assemblages!
Who...

Continue reading...

The world is shocked with a tragedy that has claimed too many lives
In Syria and Turkey, the ground shook with strife
Desperate souls left in its wake
A dad's hand touching that of his daughter, too late

We feel the pain of those who have lost loved ones
Their...

Continue reading...

we gathered our canteens
while coughing up
tar from the hidden gravel
across high terrain

through the mist of Ankara
teal fabric blew in the.breeze
over burnt orange fragments
torn from my temporal

mangled mind of madness
shifting the gates 
of emotional tiredness 
we'd waited above ground 

as the evening roared
past us again in...

Continue reading...

Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes as ever-expanding dimensions.
You are indispensable; how can you not know
that...

Continue reading...

Turkish Delight Jumble

‘Glorious’ gallimaufry 
crumbles confusion in vain
entrenched in Gallipoli
still no sense derived from pain

27th March 2017...

Continue reading...

a gold orb of light
rises behind the mountains ~
a new day begins







Written 22 September 2020....

Continue reading...

Choreography’s Turkish Delight

On sediment at the bottom of the cup of societies 
   drags of dis-enfranchised masses are waiting for a
trickle from the leaks of luxury founded on coffee 
   planted on wealthy soil and pittances from labour

Reading the ground rules...

Continue reading...

Tiny bus bumps along Ephesian roads 
bright orange sun hangs overhead scorching 
uneven ground lined with creases 
library; crumbled and marked 
with seal--Medusa’s hair 
coiling around, eyes 
burning my soul 
she sends chills 
down my 
spine....

Continue reading...

It was more than for just a little while.
Billy Hayes learned about prison Turkish style.
Smuggling hashish was a foolhardy thing.
His arrest at the airport was like a scorpion’s sting.
Back home, his friends and family tried every way
to get him released from the prison where he...

Continue reading...

How many sons 
  have we lost

How many demons
  have we found

How many graves
  must we dig

To make the ‘Fatherland’
  proud

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2016)...

Continue reading...

Mavi kubbe, sana savurdu beni.
Bedenimi çektin derinlerine.
Dünya büküldü o an.
Diplerindeyken ben,
siyah sularin doldurdu cigerlerimi.
Dalgalarin esir aldi ruhumu,
ben fark etmeden.
Billurlasti her sey,
sana aitken benligim.
Hiç oldum ilik rüzgarlarinla.
Zamanin disindaydim sanki bedenindeyken.
Yandim,
alev aldi maviliklerin.
Kayboldum,
can verdim çakillarina.
Söndüm,
eftelyalar dogdu denizinde.
Sonlardan en sonra
kizgin kumlarina vurdum senin.
Dünya dogdu o an....

Continue reading...