In the Istanbul Detention House Yard
Elizabeth at Verbal Privilege presents this wonderful poem by Nazim Hikmet that begins:
In the Istanbul Detention House yard
on a sunny winter day after rain,
as clouds, red tiles, walls, and my face
trembled in puddles on the ground,
I–with all that was bravest and meanest in me,
strongest and weakest–
I thought of the world, my country, and you.
I especially find very poignant the lines “Me and and our corner grocer, / we’re both mightily unknown in America” and “my people / ready to embrace / with the wide-eyed joy of children / anything modern, beautiful, and good– / my honest, hard-working, brave people, / half-full, half-hungry, / half slaves…” In the post-9/11 world, these seem like lines from our past written to a stillborn future.
Photo from here.
