An Istanbul Pantoum

By Karen Petersen

For John Casquarelli

Istanbul is beautiful in the rain
its many arching doorways embrace us
as the wind sighs in the Bosphorus
and the waters cleanse the stain.

Its many arching doorways embrace us
reminders of ancient history’s pain
and the waters cleanse the stain
as the wind sighs in the Bosphorus.

Reminders of ancient history’s pain
mostly forgotten for new slights
as the wind sighs in the Bosphorus
and we muse on Turkish delights.

Reminders of ancient history’s pain
as the wind signs in the Bosphorus
and we muse on Turkish delights
Istanbul is beautiful in the rain.

*

Karen Petersen has traveled the world extensively, publishing both nationally and internationally in a variety of publications. Most recently, she was published in The Manzano Mountain Review and Pilgrimage Magazine in the USA, Antiphon in the UK, Wild Words in Germany and A New Ulster in Northern Ireland. In 2015, she read "In Memory of W.B. Yeats" at the Yeats Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the KGB Bar in NYC. Her poems have been translated into Persian and Spanish. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Classics from Vassar College and an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

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