Isil Cosar
Isil Cosar is an Australian poet born to Turkish parents. She is a mother, teacher and community artist who lives in Sydney. Her poems have appeared in Poetry without Borders, Auburn Letters and Zinewest 09.
From tower to tower
dream
I am climbing a tower in my white night-dress
walking swivels of stairs-like the Guggenheim
I’m in search of seeds that I plant in mid air
they become birds and fly to another tower
the gatekeeper nods: welcome to Babylon
here words are keys to belong
which words did you bring? he points to my basket
the first word to escape is
breath
I know now how to catch you and let you go
the Paramedic taught me
when I asked- how–how do I breathe
all the worried faces cried breathe
they could not take my breath, they could not save me
when I was blue and cold and I forgot
there is my breath in that paper bag
here is my life on this emerald earth
it is but it is not
it is 4 17 am-where do I go now
back to sleep like everyone else?
recall
I am
I am breathing
I am asking questions
what’s your name? how are you today?
my name is Adam- I think
….there was a quake, it shook the universe
there was a storm, it seized the seas
there was a fire and it burnt the proof
in order to forget we must remember
some say we should ask God
God
hold my hand let me touch you
hug me o God- let me see you
I am looking for words and you
look at me o God
see yourself in my tear and say
‘Alas’ Adam…
‘I knew him well’
he was awake at dawn
trying to know me
another dream
I am swimming with fragments of words
I speak yet no-one understands me
my head hurts, I must have fallen
I try so hard
but cannot remember
The vast ocean
Not the anger nor hunger
Not the tears nor rage
Not the animated living
What frightens me…
What keeps me awake
At 2 a.m
that sedated
parched mummy
with a slow pulse
On that dreaded ocean
No land in sight
No island
No islet
No light