FEET, ARMS, HANDS, NECK AND SKULL

 

CEREMONIAL WASHING

not maundy

or 

mikvah

but for purity

in marriage

helps couples

to couple 

with taste

and pleasure

no cobwebs

slime

or dirt

between bodies

just matrimonial sweat

ahmet cafer celebiler

January, 4, 2026

LIFE'S MANUSCRIPTS

 

SCROLLS AND TRANSCRIPTS

some in cuneiform

some in hieroglyphs

on sand 

stone

and

parchment

remain to puzzle

puzzlers

scouts and adventurers

leaving Voynich aside

and disregarding

artificial intelligence

not appreciating

plants

roots and leaves

lose interest

in knowing

knowing themselves

and all else

ahmet cafer celebiler

January 3, 2026

INTERPRETING INTERPRETATIONS

 

SEEING SOMETHING ELSE IN SOMETHING

poems are interpeted

also judged 

by any and all

except the illiterate

holy books are judged

and interpreted

by all

including the illiterate

who also 

judge

looks

speech

gestures

mien

attire

earnings

evaluations are short

and long

and mean

and

replace 

the poem

or a holy book

in languages recherche

as litanies

invocations

and

incantations

not so divine

the poem has a short half life

the holy book lives on

for the violence

and revenge

to 

recover 

its losses to the poem

even when the poem is no more

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 31, 2025

NAUSEA

 

ALL DAY SICKNESS

not just in the morning

anxiety or depression

political poisoning

or intracranial pressure

appear

as flashes

or dim feelings

upon

a fall imagined

 physical

or financial

even

matrimonial

to lurk

ever reminding one of those occasions

with and without other people

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 28, 2025

FORGETTING DEJA VU

 

COLLECTIONS OF SCENES AND PEOPLE

what was seen 

and

who walked into a life

do not always find a solid niche

and

if they do

they need strong guards

charms 

and talismans 

as well as

frequent chants 

to hole up

fortified to the brim

even then

with no dutch boy to put his finger in a hole

trickles of words

and visions

and battalions of persona

results of creation 

not at all subjected to evolution

march out of the destruction

to their new abodes 

in oblivion

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 26, 2025

WRITERS AND READERS

 

LAUGHING WITH ARISTOCRACY

readers who hold books

on buses and underground worm holes smile at the antics

and thoughts

and issues

of those beyond reach

on multicoloured maps

and 

colourless lives

present and past similar

peeves petty and pretty

in homes stately

and singularly

beyond comfort 

but with apparitions hoped

and magic never realized

while

lives and livelihoods 

taken away

and

stored in 

halls

hallways

drawing rooms for not sketching

board rooms for the condescending

play noiseless instruments

made of human skin

ahmet cafer celebiler

November 24, 2025

PRESENTING ORHAN VELI

 

GIFT WRAPPING

December, 2025

a week before New year's eve

a week before the prick of a needle

in each of my eyes

i am wrapping gifts to daughters

and to grand children

before i receive a gift of an apne mask cushion 

because I asked for it

and pecks

on cheeks

from all five 

and hugs

perfunctory

from a wish list nonexistent

it is easy to hurt an old body

a body with pains from a recent fall at night

and arthritis

and dark specks flying in the eye

almost an expert at delaying bladder needs night and day

daring the powers to act to punish my folly

I am gifting "Complete poems of Orhan Veli" to each daughter

thinking that they may understand misery, hopelessness and poverty

of a different kind in verses of a different kind of a different time 

if they find and riffle through the pages of  books and manuscripts of 

poetry, even if they consider them defunct like those who wrote them.

And one day, someone will visit this abode, or live here and feel the wings 

and the brief puff of one or more poets passing through the doors.

ahmet cafer celebiler

not yet wrapping it up

December 22, 2025