VOIR DIRE

 

JURY SELECTION

juries 

judges

oracles

emperors

family members

colleagues

administrators and ministers

all opinionated sages

educated and ignorant

self educated and acolytic

in a periodic and geographic

quorum 

watching

missing

not perceiving

embroiled in theses

and apotheoses

natives of rostrums

benches

thrones 

their own royalty

do not let them rule 

lives 

futures

and pasts

while rivers flow

rains pour

and winds push

to and fro

on your revolving sphere

that will not budge

as you should not 

not choose to succomb

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 17, 2024

PERSONAL ANTHROPOCENE

 

Ignoring media

may not 

cause

or concern

blindness

be 

a member

of holocene

and the club of

useless change 

and

development

and

deprived evolution

until

the periodic

dues

the cost 

financial

and emotional

becomes too high

unsupportable

and

one shrinks 

in size

and in thought

and action

forgetting 

the medium

as the message

and yearns

for a touch

a loving touch

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 14, 2024

REGISTER LODGE AND DISPOSE

 

 RECORDINGS, ANNALS, CHRONICLES    

we

the aforesaid

testify herewith

that we are factual

and true

and fully registered

as we saw

and believed

their evil would have spread

in the atmosphere

in the seas

and among the unhappy

and among the 

inconsiderate

the ignorant

and the connived

So

we came up

with our real 

and pragmatic version

of values

events

and histories

reflecting 

the dull 

and duller

knife-edge approach

to 

reality

war

revolution

freedom

slavery

and such

wells and

ditches

abysses

as we saw fit

for the sheep

who could not look up at the sky

further than the lower branches of trees

and prefer the bushes

thorny

and brambly

AND

we looked

and were happy

and satisfied

until

another cosmic storm

or misguiding manipulator

of our making

came up 

with its own version

to engineer and 

and then register

our lot

Ahmet cafer Celebiler

Decenber 13 (Friday) 2024

COUNT THE TRUMPS

 

     

THERE ARE MORE THAN 13 TRUMPS

Finite games

that we play

that we watch

that rule lives

also have no beginnings

or ends

that one notices

until 

an unexpected trump 

trumps a certain trick

a winner

no longer an ace 

king 

or queen

lost to an insignificant trump

from a forgotten

or 

incalculable stack

lurking

always lurking

around a corner

behind a door

or

in hands

manicured and not

the element of surprise

in fiction

and non-fiction

in a dream

or vision

incidental 

seemingly

or 

coincidental

and 

peut etre

collateral

ahmet cafer celebiler

Desember 11, 2024

ANXIETY AND DREAMS

 

             it is only about survival

birth

death

and the distance

from 

       one

to the other

high strung 

synapse sprung

poised for neuroplasty

and

shame and regret 

and action

all in an ordained

context

 in and around

a lobe 

or two

consternation

and disquiet

in the night

and 

the rooster wakes 

to the morning sunlight

warm

and cold

and wet

all for survival

real and imaginary

ahmet cafer celebiler

December 3, 2024

ANOTHER OTHER CHELEBI TRAVELS

 

TRESPASSES AND OFFENCES

he went to the city when young

in body

and in mind

the city of fables and mysteries

histories and labels

to face 

himself and others

in streets narrow

and wide

and in eyes 

sunken 

and deep

uncaring

even like sheep.

wooled over

world apart

he saw brunets and blonds

who could speak to him

who should speak to him

and

was speechless

lest 

they did not see

did not appraise

did not 

he saw houses

with no owners visible

shops with nothing available

stone edifices

stone faces

fuming things

and fumbling humans

and learned loneliness

for himself 

and others

he came back

himself

and 

as another

to the same 

to do the same

to think

some more

to search some more

to plan to visit some more

ahmet cafer celebiler

december 2, 2024

INCIDENT

 

INCIDENT

incidents

occur

at railroad bridges

in law

in physics

and 

epidemics

but mostly 

as

significant 

but 

usually insignificant

events 

in a life

spanning creeks

creations

generations

also

magics

visible 

on some days.

ahmet cafer celebiler

10 November, 2024

"Remembering Ambrose Bierce and his 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'