Even as I age and wrinkle, I seem to be growing a poet’s shadow. This blind companion, still strange to me, yet lifelong, has even begun to lead me about. The development is partly of my own making , of course, or at least of my assenting, since it is absolutely necessary for my health, but in this slow, slow process of coming out, come what may, I am also receiving forceful help from real friends.
One is Steve Wasserman. He is recording my poems and putting them up on YouTube. Below, you can hear the first two recordings :
Another friend is Mevlut Ceylan, poet, now Director of the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centre in London. He has overseen the publication of a book of poems of mine called “Riding the Hyphen” (between I and Thou). An online version of the book has already been posted on this blog (“Here is a Book”) and here again is the link to it.
The book itself is selling at £10.00 an issue. Email me if you want to buy one (see my address over to the right of the site)
Alternatively, come to a poetry reading at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centre in London, tonight, Thursday October 18th, starting with snack food at 6.30 pm. The address is 10 Maple Street, London NW1T 5HA. It is off Tottenham Court Road, towards the northern end. Nearest tube, Warren Street.
I am sharing the platform with a good Turkish poet called Bejan Matur. I shall be reading my long poem “Travels of the The Last Emperor,” some of which Steve has already recorded (see above). I am supplying a typed copy of the whole thing here. If you come to the event, why not bring it with you ? You could be reading it as I recite it, seeing the words at the same time as hearing them .
Some copies of “Riding the Hyphen” will be available for sale that evening. The Emperor is not included in it. He evaded that particular cast of the net. “Riding the Hyphen” is in three sections and all three are about crossing fraught human frontiers. If I could, I would give out copies of the book to all and anyone involved in seeking to help people through the medium of relationship, through making honest connection. The task of making and keeping real human connection is a difficult one, perhaps the hardest human task of all, and warrants all our support, for our survival’s sake.