The Poetry Stash: 24Feb2024

It’s This Way by Nazim Hikmet

Today’s poem is “It’s This Way” by Nazim Hikmet from the collection Poems of Nazim Hikmet, translated from the Turkish by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk.

It’s This Way by Nazim Hikmet, trans. by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk

I stand in the advancing light,
my hands hungry, the world’s beautiful.

My eyes can’t get enough of the trees—
they’re so hopeful, so green.

A sunny road runs through the mulberries,
I’m at the window of the prison infirmary.

I can’t smell the medicines—
carnations must be blooming nearby.

It’s this way:
being captured is beside the point,
the point is not to surrender.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “I stand in the…”
2.	Begin with “I can’t smell…”
3.	Do you live in a country where a person is imprisoned for their beliefs or self-determination? Have you had an experience that put you at risk for such an arrest? If yes, write about the experience. If no, consider writing from the perspective of an ally. How would you show compassion? Draft a poem of protest.
4.	Explore the concepts of resistance and surrender. How does it feel, look, sound like? Does it have a taste or fragrance?
5.	In times of despair, the natural world often provides hope and solace. Draft a poem in which the speaker connects with (or disconnects from) the natural world.

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