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      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
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      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
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      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
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Poems by ​Levent Karataş

KOALA
​

Your kiss smells of eucalyptus
This is what I say unwittingly
Whilst I bid you farewell.
As always we talked
We love with weary clauses
And with habits my dear
Like the wish trees.

My identity card is worn and torn too
Doctors prepare epicrisis meticulously
I became an uncle forty three times
Besides I grew up to become myopic
Besides I grew up to become crow.

Today I warmly clad for you
I sought out my pullover
Burled by birds and flowers
As I stir up the wardrobes
I thought you’ll suddenly show up
Amid from the garments
With a teddy koala in your arms
And say “Surprise my dear.”

Such a madness, you had gone.




The Kitchen

Those who know everything are in the kitchen,
 those who know nothing are in the living room


I .                                         
I brought this solitude here
My nothingness, my absence is this
The refrigerator is poem now
It’s space is Attila József’s cry
It’s fulness is a big-
Italian family prayer


II.
I brought this solitude here
To the monitorial kitchen, to the industrial districts
4 Levent Americanist Ahmet, is a poem now
Table from lemon boxes, Muslum  [1]
Sounds of hammer, rhythm of Latin America



III.
I brought this solitude here
To the cell houses’ Stalin walls
Revolution is a poem now
Travelling around the world like a ghost,
The ballad of Atahualpa Yupanqui 
Son Jesus’ last supper-
A shepherd’s song played by double caval



IV.
I brought this solitude here
To the ‘Top Secret Rooms’ of labyrinth talks
 ‘West Study Group’ is a poem now
Seated on a Mediterranean dinner table with fish
An officer with a cloak, zeibek of Salonica
Hugging his woman, ‘jazz form of the city’






V.
I brought this solitude here
And the birds carrying love in the letters in their beaks
Istanbul is a poem now
A wife puts her handkerchief on earth, Nikriz Peshrev
Message in a bottle left from the shore of the Bosphorus’s water to the eternity-
“I suffered the pangs of love once” [2] tango



VI.
I brought this solitude here
To the Borges’s Tanka Notebook
Library is a poem now
Frosty angels’ orbit, operetta
A book read through the silence in a chateau looking over a lowland,
Valse of the rain


VII.
I brought this solitude here
Without stepping over my shadow’s lines 
Loneliness is a poem now
A dervish slept in his cilehane, begging
Look of a boy who drew a bird, Cemal Sureya’s very good [3]


VIII.
I brought this solitude here
To the ‘Homeland Hotel’s [4] window looking over trains 
Country is a poem now
Winter fair’s iridescent scene, 'Rain of quails’ [5]
Matinee of the ‘Kosk Cinema’ Anastasia, The Eagle Dance


IX.
I brought this solitude here
New York/ 42nd Avenue/ four o’clock at night
No gangsters’ footsteps are quiet    
Manhattan’s dead-ends are a poem now
The City Lights ‘Lookin for some happiness’
Looking to the shopwindows of ‘Q Boutique’ Juliette’s- 
sadness funky silence.






X.
I brought this solitude here
To the funeral homes’ grey backyards
Death is a poem now
Carrying a coffin with fortitude, chamber music
Scattering her ashes to the Pasific waters is her will-
Chansons of her maidenhood…

[1] There is an allusion here to the popular Turkish singer Müslüm Gürses

[2] Popular Turkish tango. Original name is "Ben de gönül çektim eskiden"

[3] There is an alluison here to one of the poem of famous Turkish poet Cemal Sureya.


[4] ‘Homeland Hotel’, original name ‘Anayurt Oteli’ is a book by Turkish writer Yusuf Atılgan.

[5] 'Rain of quails’ original name ‘Bıldırcın Yağmuru’ is Zeki Muren’s book who is a famous Turkish classical music singer.


Translated by Hande Dipligunes



Picture
Levent Karataş was born in 1972. His first poetry book named “I’m falling Galileo” was published in 1992. Afterwards his poetry collections of “Tale,” “An Eastern Slumber,” “Pretty Saturday,” “Piano Factories,” “The Distance of an Earthling,” and “The Last Vision” were published. His poems and prose has appeared in magazines such as “Varlık,” “Adam Sanat,” “Gösteri,” “Kitap-lık,” “Sombahar,” “Yasakmeyve” “Şiir-lik,” Şiir Atı,” Şiir Oku,” “İblis,” Şairin Atölyesi,” “Yeni Yüzyıl,” “Cumhuriyet,” “Cumhuriyet Kitap.” The poet lives in İstanbul.



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​VerseVille (formerly The Enchanting Verses Literary Review) © 2008-2025    ISSN 0974-3057 Published from India. 

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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Media Coverages
    • Copyright Notice
    • VerseVille Blog
  • Submissions
    • Poetry and Essays Guidelines
    • Book Review Guidelines
    • Research Series Guidelines
  • Masthead
  • Editions
    • 2011 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XIV November 2011
    • 2012 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XV March 2012
      • ISSUE-XVI July 2012
      • ISSUE-XVII November 2012
    • 2013 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XVIII April 2013
      • ISSUE XIX November 2013
    • 2014 Issues >
      • ISSUE XX May 2014
    • 2015 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXI February 2015
      • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • 2016 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIII August 2016
      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
    • 2017 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXV August 2017
      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
    • 2018 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
      • ISSUE XXVIII November 2018
    • 2019 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIX July 2019
    • 2020 ISSUES >
      • Issue XXX February 2020
      • ISSUE XXXI December 2020
    • 2021 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXII August 2021
    • 2022 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXIII June 2022
      • ISSUE XXXIV December 2022
    • 2023 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXV August 2023
      • ISSUE XXXVI December 2023 Indian Poetry
    • 2024 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXVII October 2024 Bengali Poetry
    • 2025 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXVIII January 2025 Balkan Poetry
  • Collaborations
    • Macedonian Collaboration
    • Collaboration with Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • Interviews
  • Prose on Poetry and Poets
    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions