The Tunnel

  • Posted on: 27 November 2015
  • By: Joe

at a party
I tell the poet laureate
that poetry is a tunnel

in Istanbul
the tunel
connects the old city
to the new one
through a long-ago built passage from Golata
to the Blue Mosque

Golata: where my ancestors
opened up a candy store
started a new life
gave themselves a new name

I have gone underground
through many tunnels
from darkness into even deeper
darkness in my search
for light
leaving my old city
journeying underwater
beneath the earth
looking for
a new one

poetry is 
a descent into dark crevices
into narrow corridors
until you reach a place
where you can no longer find your way
back where you can no longer see
the dark behind you and can not yet see
the light ahead

and in that glowing darkness
you find something to carry with you
out into the light
though your journey seems endless

finally
you enter the new city
mouth open
eyes wide
with a new name

Sunrise in the West