Dr. hülya n. yılmaz, TURKEY / USA

A DAUGHTER OF ANATOLIA

home to fertile civilizations for years

in multiplied thousands

a grandiose spread of bountiful nature

her integral riches, a modest splendor

distinct collections of artifacts

Ottoman Empire is on its way to fade away

with the onset of the year 1923

a multitude of reforms are set free

a republic is born

neither the Europeans of the West

nor the cultures of the Near East

are any contest to it

as far as civilized new-eties

Mustafa Kemal’s Turkey

learns women’s rights

public seclusion of women is no more

females proudly trot on public sphere

doctors

lawyers

educators

parliamentarians

open-platform speakers

writers in fact a notable number of writers

the infant republic

meets her first president

the world-renowned Atatürk

a visionary

a rights-fighter

the gentle father of Anatolia

she leads a prosperous life

is envied by the aggressive back then-world-powers

and abundantly spreads to and through all her territories

the immediate and cosmic success

of the historically marked miraculous come-back

from the ruins of a longest-lived empire

the once-self-celebrated Ottoman spheres

recover from their prolonged death-bed-occupancy

women are liberated

the women of Anatolia

countless daughters merge

from their secluded observation towers

and take their rightful place as cultural icons

immersed in a cycle of an all-inclusive diversity,

faiths of all walks of life settle in safely inside her

while they don a dance of joy

in honor of her legacy

co-existence rules

decades pass

Anatolia hears a knock on her door

corruption

disruption

destruction

deconstruction

religion’s unreligious re-construction

barge in along with their brain-washed populace

her entryway

which for decades

forbade all darkness

is suddenly plundered

the masterfully orchestrated brutal kicks

deliberately vicious strikes for a full-blown ruin

have their way of raping her away

a tyrant violates mercilessly

Anatolia and her daughters

“for the sake of Turkey’s progress,”

is the disguise he and his loyal beasts

hide behind cowardly and relentlessly

while they eradicate her glorious inborn gifts

inhumanity and an all-consuming Stone-Age mentality

rule over the once-untouchable beauty of Anatolia today

implanting into her womb eternally barren ovaries

her promised fate is no more

furthermore, this despot and his herd

leave no room for a single drop of hope

for her daughters’ off-springs to remain intact

beyond this date

CHILD RAPE AND MY COUNTRY OF BIRTH

The news was impossible for me to disregard,

And regarded, I have.

To word my reaction to it as non-fiction, however,

Was a thought far too disturbing to me.

I, a woman having passed her 60s, born into

And raised in modern Turkey before leaving

For the United States of America,

My anon-similarly-tainted-adoptive-country

In pursuit of an advanced academic career

Numerous decades ago.

So,

I have

Resorted

To the infinite

Embrace of ease

And offerings of comfort

That only poetry succeeds to lend.

In my attempt

To at least somewhat forget,

I have called in my all-time favorite poet

To please come to my rescue with his worldly work,

And he, the gracious Nazım Hikmet appeared in my sphere.

While terribly saddened by the latest shock

For his legendarily beloved country of also my birth,

I imagined how this world-renowned exilic Turk would rest

His dire concerns about Turkey’s fate

With infinite confidence

In the hands of her women

Who in multiple thousands

Had gathered in a peaceful protest,

And kept marching through the former capital

Going after the proposed Child Sex Law

Not minding the ancient old, hard-to walk-on-streets

That Istanbul, the world’s only dual continental-city

Had seen being etched by countless histories in the making.

After Nazım’s imagined visit to my library of his books

And following a perusal at ease of his legendary trust

In Turkey’s female species he left behind via poetry,

I began to see the thick slices of reassurance

In his persistently prophetic deliberations

Amid his deep-rooted concerns about

The also-back then-objectionable

Status of Turkish women:

Wrongdoings, regardless of their nature

Will persist anywhere in the world. No doubt.

As long as there exist those dear spirits, however

That aim at attaining a balance between the evil and good 

There will always be

Hope for all humanity

From this point on

To eternity

AN HONOR-KILLING PREY

in the hope-filled dreams for our children

we were once one as we had always been

living the privilege of a fertile womb

for eons in its rightful haven

with promise to an offspring

you are no longer

I met you again in your tragedy

the butchery of your yet-to blossom life

and that of the one inside you to love and adore

the internal pump on my left thus burnt at its core

the same decade

though in a different place

may have left intact

your youthful grace

I mourn your brutally wasted precious being

while I wish to have been home-bound kin to you

though we had for long lost each other’s caring touch 

as we were put on foreign tract to relate only from afar

I am the one arriving on time to keep your final breath ajar

Dr. hülya n. yılmaz, a retired Liberal Arts Professor, is a literary translator between English, German and Turkish, and Co-Chair and Director of Editing Services at Inner Child Press International. As a published author, she has presented her work at numerous national and international poetry events. Her work has been published in an excess of eighty anthologies of global endeavors. On May 25, 2018, hülya has been honored by the Writer’s International Network of British Colombia, Canada with a literary award. Since April 15, 2017, two of yılmaz’s poems remain permanently installed in Telepoem Booth – a U.S.-wide poetic art exhibition. She is currently working on two books of Turkish and English poetry, a collection of short stories, and a fictional autobiography. hülya finds it vital for everyone to understand a deeper sense of self and writes creatively to attain a comprehensive awareness for and development of our humanity. 

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Women, Power & Creativity :: Setu, March 2019