A Recent Picture of the Inner Circle

                                              A bad Marlon Brando as God Father imitation

Nese, Ceylan and Eser clutching me so that I do not fly away.



(Somehow,  my bow ties always appear crooked. Must be pushing through the wrong hole
or in wrong direction.)

A Poem For Eser

          TO HER

         You asked me for poems

         Poems of joy and happiness

        Adventures into the known and the unknown

       Poems from the depths of being

                 Of  being together

       Full of smiling faces and hippos drawn as small as cockroaches

      Aimless night drives to alleviate pangs of hunger

      Sneaking invitations for delights to come.

     Don’t you know that poems are sad?

     Suleyman effendi and Alfred J. Prufrock live with us

    Timeless trains of misery leave Haydarpasa station every minute

             On the minute

     Who was I to change the hieroglyphs of Boddhisatwa

             and the kyrie eleisons of the man made of wood

     Sonnets were not my style.

     Today it is different

     It is time to redefine

     Not to seek joy in sadness

               Nor to conquer empathy in depression

     Just sit back (or forward) and say:

           It is good to travel with you,

           And you,

           And you,

           And you,

           You.

(1978- .........)

Notes :

-  Pictionary games with kids and friends

- Driving Daughter late at night in Riyadh, KSA, to get her to sleep

- Suleyman Effendi, character in Orhan Veli poem 

- Trains and Haydarpasa Station : Reference to "Human Landscapes From My Country", Nazim Hikmet

Hieroglyphs, Boddhisatwa, Kyrie Eleison, Man Made of Wood : from poems by Asaf Halet Celebi

Testament to Sharing The Only Adventure There Is

Possibly,
These are not all.
Yet, why post more.
She remembers,
She tells.

Sharing with each other
And family.
On this 68th,
Or is it 69th?
Birthday
Some day in Virgo September. 2012

No pretension
To have been born to end war in 1944,
Or to stop others later.
Just life and joy
And lives and joys

What you get
Is what you get
Is so much
When given freely
and lovingly.

The harlequin
Did not appear by mistake
I hoped
But did not ask.
Why ask?

All the faces
And all the bodies
Are with us today
And will be,
Here, Tomorrow.

Many thanks to them,
To you,
To us,
To all.
Always.