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From "Keşke"
Four poems by Jennifer A. Reimer Keşke XVIII.
—she— joins Mediterranean to Aegean in Demre where the huntress —she— wild and tame Artemis refuses Lycian marriage : river to sea silt covered alliance Myra worships Roman Diana’s templed shadows : wilderness virginity childbirth beneath moon hunt high cliffs carved rock belief : tombs the dead resemble treasure transported chests X marked by a wing— like pirates map fabled like creature St Nicholas his arrival steals —her— star nights sky : Orion’s bow bends sailors from Bari —her— heart seize saint’s forgotten relics Myra in 1087 heaps of Murex shells evidence Andriake harbor where now ongoing operation —she— waits— for the production of purple dye keşke —she— Artemis acted out in anger flies whenever from his boat her wishes— keşke— arrows disobeyed seas surfaces— |
"Expedition Oriental Body" by Salma Ahmad Caller. Indian Ink, collage, graphite, gold dust pigment on acid free cartridge paper, 59.4cm x 84.1cm, 2018.
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Keşke XIX.
—she—
seas
split stone
from wish : the Roman chapel
ruins
belonging
one—
another
condition secures absence
with draws
myths memory : I might claim to be nothing less
than
--she—
who beckons
—you—
blown back
by —her— wine, water, robes
gifts and so much else, too
wind : wish
--Neşko 1—
holds her lines
body hard
rocks
cast net cast spell
bind some new intrigue
me words all compassion
—she—
does not speak --keşke—
“to conceal”
diversion distraction
from— you gods who cannot bear
lone longing to let a goddess sleep with a man
—inconsolable— even if it is
fate without
threads concealment
skin gold
etches
names
—her—
—she—
seas
split stone
from wish : the Roman chapel
ruins
belonging
one—
another
condition secures absence
with draws
myths memory : I might claim to be nothing less
than
--she—
who beckons
—you—
blown back
by —her— wine, water, robes
gifts and so much else, too
wind : wish
--Neşko 1—
holds her lines
body hard
rocks
cast net cast spell
bind some new intrigue
me words all compassion
—she—
does not speak --keşke—
“to conceal”
diversion distraction
from— you gods who cannot bear
lone longing to let a goddess sleep with a man
—inconsolable— even if it is
fate without
threads concealment
skin gold
etches
names
—her—
Keşke XXV.
As the hills
fall
again
worlds recede : ridge : the greening
days form hours
plaited
desires —she—
not yet stone nor
—seas—
leave taking nothing
in to
shored treasures
divine
what
simply —she— will
become twice
three four five
times
more
is— error slip
knot tight
the final breeze
harbors
broad back or risen spine
Teke peninsula
stretch West of—
Taurus mountains
Kale renamed in 2005
Demre
lies between brown valleys
past perfect
tense
the halyard —she— had longed
lined : crease of flesh
worn grief
sadness a wakes
--keşke— bow raises
—she— nymphs
skin so briefly
—seven years or seven days—
smuggled
cave or ship
wait to— guide me
bide—
forgive this
wish fills Kaleköy’s ancient cistern
cannot hold
space pleads one more
day
As the hills
fall
again
worlds recede : ridge : the greening
days form hours
plaited
desires —she—
not yet stone nor
—seas—
leave taking nothing
in to
shored treasures
divine
what
simply —she— will
become twice
three four five
times
more
is— error slip
knot tight
the final breeze
harbors
broad back or risen spine
Teke peninsula
stretch West of—
Taurus mountains
Kale renamed in 2005
Demre
lies between brown valleys
past perfect
tense
the halyard —she— had longed
lined : crease of flesh
worn grief
sadness a wakes
--keşke— bow raises
—she— nymphs
skin so briefly
—seven years or seven days—
smuggled
cave or ship
wait to— guide me
bide—
forgive this
wish fills Kaleköy’s ancient cistern
cannot hold
space pleads one more
day
Keşke XX.
In the wet
aftermath
of weather
the river
rushes
brown
beneath
—she—
drinks
rain or slate
white
wine
—she— turns
to water : a green lexicon
here : silence
missing sea
stone fruit
ripe
air : apple skin
—she—
inhales claims
—her body—
rivered
towards distant
seasons
affect wrapped
breath body’s
temperature drops
rise again
rain— patterned
river moves through
wake of—
absence
refuses embankment
refuses soil
ground
into this—
abandoned terroir of—
meanwhile
—she—
In the wet
aftermath
of weather
the river
rushes
brown
beneath
—she—
drinks
rain or slate
white
wine
—she— turns
to water : a green lexicon
here : silence
missing sea
stone fruit
ripe
air : apple skin
—she—
inhales claims
—her body—
rivered
towards distant
seasons
affect wrapped
breath body’s
temperature drops
rise again
rain— patterned
river moves through
wake of—
absence
refuses embankment
refuses soil
ground
into this—
abandoned terroir of—
meanwhile
—she—
About the Author
Jennifer A. Reimer, Lise Meitner postdoctoral fellow in American Studies at the University of Graz in Austria, received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, and her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco in 2005. Jennifer has numerous scholarly and creative publications. Her first prose poetry book, The Rainy Season Diaries, was released in 2013 by Quale Press. The Turkish translation of The Rainy Season Diaries was released by Şiirden Press (Istanbul) in 2017. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Achiote Press, an independent press dedicated to spotlighting underrepresented authors and artists. A proud California native, Jennifer now lives in Austria. Follow her on FB (Jennifer Andrea) and Instagram (@jenniandreaca). Contact her at: jenniferareimer@gmail.com.
Jennifer A. Reimer, Lise Meitner postdoctoral fellow in American Studies at the University of Graz in Austria, received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011, and her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco in 2005. Jennifer has numerous scholarly and creative publications. Her first prose poetry book, The Rainy Season Diaries, was released in 2013 by Quale Press. The Turkish translation of The Rainy Season Diaries was released by Şiirden Press (Istanbul) in 2017. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Achiote Press, an independent press dedicated to spotlighting underrepresented authors and artists. A proud California native, Jennifer now lives in Austria. Follow her on FB (Jennifer Andrea) and Instagram (@jenniandreaca). Contact her at: jenniferareimer@gmail.com.
About the Work
"The manuscript from which these poems are taken is titled Keşke, which translates roughly to "if only/I wish" from Turkish to English. The majority of the manuscript consists of one central, long poem, divided into twenty sections. Longing is an important part of “keşke.” In these poems, as with the other keşke poems in the book, I wished to capture the space of longing filling up with the speaker’s own self in the way that bodies fill with breath, tides fill the coast with seawater and pages fill with words. There’s a feminist poetics working in the keşke poems. Despite absence, longing, disconnection, the passage of time, and everything our lives wreck and ruin, the “she” of this poem is active. She “swims,” “reads,” “counts,” “deciphers,” “decodes,” “stars,” “casts,” “shadows” and finally, “imagines.” The power of female imagination turns what is invisible, absent or wrecked into an unequivocal assertion of being."
"The manuscript from which these poems are taken is titled Keşke, which translates roughly to "if only/I wish" from Turkish to English. The majority of the manuscript consists of one central, long poem, divided into twenty sections. Longing is an important part of “keşke.” In these poems, as with the other keşke poems in the book, I wished to capture the space of longing filling up with the speaker’s own self in the way that bodies fill with breath, tides fill the coast with seawater and pages fill with words. There’s a feminist poetics working in the keşke poems. Despite absence, longing, disconnection, the passage of time, and everything our lives wreck and ruin, the “she” of this poem is active. She “swims,” “reads,” “counts,” “deciphers,” “decodes,” “stars,” “casts,” “shadows” and finally, “imagines.” The power of female imagination turns what is invisible, absent or wrecked into an unequivocal assertion of being."
About the Artist
Salma Ahmad Caller is an Egyptian/British artist and art historian, who was born in Iraq and grew up in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. She now lives in the UK. Salma’s art practice involves creating an imagery of the narratives of body that have shaped her own body and identity across profound cultural divides. Her work is strongly visual but also incorporates text and sound works. It is an investigation of the painful and contradictory mythologies surrounding the female body, processes of exoticization, and the legacy of colonialism as a cross-generational transmission of ideas, traumas, bodies and misconceptions. Her art practice is informed by a Masters in Art History and Theory, having studied medicine, and teaching cross-cultural perspectives at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
About the Art
“Expedition Oriental Body is a collage showing Alexandrine Tinné with her servants in Cairo. She was a Dutch female ‘explorer’ in Africa in the late 1800’s, and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara. This work expresses an idea of ingestion, about how Orientalism and exoticization of ‘others' are more than just ideas, they have the power to construct the senses of the body and alter how we experience those so called ‘others’. I became interested in female European travellers like Tinné, whose obsession was the ‘East’ and I am curious about how female explorers views and experiences might have differed from their male counterparts who were part of processes of colonisation and Empire.”
