Chalice
By John Casquerelli,
Translated by Sevda Akyuz
“She won’t always be there
to help you with epilogues,”
my father would say.
“Emotions are landmines.”
Wounds may bleed, but are
necessary for the healing
to begin. Each day, a series
of movements, a dawn
unfolding, the long breath
between glances. Shall I tread
carefully around seashells and
man o’ war to bookmark the
ocean? Thirst is a reflex,
and it comes with a cost.
A commodified glue binding
everything from fruit trees to
expectations to blank pages
in an old Red Leaf notebook.
If the mirage of originality
is lost, the palate loses its
desire to taste. Distance can
be an invitation, an open door
to enter. In the spectrum
of innocence, colors are most
vivid when our bodies touch.
Kadeh
“O her zaman sonsöze yardım etmek için
orada olmayacak,” derdi babam.
“Duygular tıpkı mayın gibidir.”
Yaralar kanayabilir,
ama iyileşmenin başlaması için gereklidir.
Her gün, bir dizi hareket,
şafak sökerken,
bakışmalar arasındaki uzun soluk.
Deniz kabuklarının ve
denizanalarının arasında
dikkatli mi yürümeliyim
okyanusu işaretlemek adına?
Susuzluk bir reflekstir ve de bir bedeli vardır.
Kırmızı kapaklı eski bir defterin
boş sayfalarından beklentilere ve
dahi meyve ağaçlarına,
herşeyi yapıştıran bir zamk.
Şayet özgünlük serabı yitip giderse,
damak da tat alma arzusunu yitirir.
Mesafe bir davet olabilir,
girilecek açık bir kapı.
Masumiyet dizgesinde renkler
en çok bedenlerimiz dokunurken canlıdır.
*
John Casquarelli is the author of two full-length collections: On Equilibrium of Song (Overpass Books, 2011) and Lavender (Authorspress, 2014). He is an Instructor of Academic Writing at Koç Üniversitesi in Istanbul. John is also a Poetry Editor for a New York City journal, StatORec. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University—Brooklyn. He was awarded the 2010 Esther Hyneman Award for Poetry, 2016 Kafka Residency Prize in Hostka, Czech Republic, and a 2017 residency at the Writer’s Room of The Betsy Hotel on South Beach. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Teaching as a Human Experience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Pilgrimage Magazine, Suisun Valley Review, Expound Magazine, Peacock Journal, The Poetry Mail/RaedLeaf Foundation for Poetry and Allied Arts, Marathon Literary Review, Black Earth Institute, and Boarder Senses.
Sevda Akyuz studied English and American Literature in college. She is bilingual in Turkish and English. She reads in Italian and Spanish as well. She has been teaching English and Academic Writing for 30 years in prestigious universities in Turkey. She has also taught Western Civilizations, Film, and History of Drama. She has translated and edited books, theses, academic articles, art catalogs, stories, movie scripts, plays and poems. She writes scripts for TV, movie scripts, plays and essays.