FAILED
I have failed again
failed the one I wanted to please the most
for, for this body, she is the only true host
filled with darkest fears for the days to come
and deprived of the rays of a friendly warm sun
freezing in the absence of certainty and hope
once you fail yourself, with life, how do you cope?
I have failed again
failed the one I truly hold dear
tired of running, escaping from this fear
filled with screaming shadows on the longest nights
these are modern times, no more sight of noble knights
an amazon surviving the cruelty of her own deities
but once you fail yourself, in life, who is left to please?
I have failed again
failed the gem of life
could not keep it out of sight of the thieves along the way
I can’t help but wonder, will there be a day
filled with joy and certainty and hope
if this day is to come, until then, how do I resist the slope
and stay on top
will life grant me a brand new start?
* * * * *
WASTED
wasted is the time
when you make your investments in the wrong one
wasted is the sun
when behind the sunglasses your eyes are all alone
wasted is the rain
when your umbrella is too damn big
wasted is the plain
when the crops you need are not growing
wasted is the mind
when you don’t have friends to take a tour inside
wasted is the heart
when all that it offers are gently or cruelly cast aside
wasted is the body
when you can’t dance the dances of Lord Shiva fully
wasted is the soul
when noone gives a damn to a call
in shape of a poem, written by a plume
picked off a bird, a bird which we assume
to have been disguised in a fancy pink costume
so that she could run away from tears
and reach the ever blue clouds.
wasted are the skies
if the bird in your heart forgets how she flies.
* * * * *
STRANDED
aren’t we all stranded
on this island called life?
aren’t we the smart people
who don’t know how to deal with this strife?
we are walking in crowds, still we feel on our own
aren’t we all stranded here
together and yet all alone?
aren’t we all stranded
on this moment called crisis
aren’t we the very keen people
who start relying on rolling dices?
we are talking too much, still we know we do very little
aren’t we all stranded here
each one of us so warm and yet so brittle?
aren’t we all stranded
on this feeling called love?
aren’t we the passionate people
who are taught to hide our reaching hands in a glove?
we are living in couples, still we dream in separate rooms
aren’t we all stranded here
on the same real earth and on different dreamy moons?
aren’t we all stranded
on the words of a page, in a poem?
aren’t we the travelers
who are so far away from home?
home that we know belongs to us, home where friends will feel at ease
aren’t we all stranded here,
with only each other left to show us the way back to sail on breezy seas!
Itir Toksöz
Itır Toksöz is from the Aegean Coast of Turkey. She has a BA degree in Public Administration(in French) from the Marmara University in Istanbul. She studied at Universite Paris 1 - Pantheon-Sorbonne on a French government scholarship and earned a DEA degree in International Relations (Concentration- Strategy). She then left for the USA for her Ph.D studies in Public and International Affairs at Northeastern University, Boston. She gained her Ph.D degree with a dissertation entitled “Security Dilemmas and Threat Perceptions: Turkey at the Crossroads”, studying the impact of threat perceptions on civil-military relations. She worked at Northeastern University as an Adjunct Professor, then taught World Civilizations courses as an Instructor at Koç University – Istanbul. She is currently an Assistant Professor of International Relations and the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Doğuş University Istanbul. Her Professional areas of research interest are threat perceptions, civil-military relations, science-technology and international politics, human security and evolutionary approaches in social sciences. She also does teaching and research by focusing on Art and International Relations. She has been teaching a course named International Relations Through Films for the last 6 years and does research on music and cartoons in international relations. Under her academic personality lies an amateur artistic character who is into singing, writing (songs, poetry, tales, plays, stories, essays, blog posts) and dancing. She is a founding member of the editorial collective and a regular contributor at the award winning (National Education Writers Association Community Blog Award 2nd Prize – 2011) blog of University of Venus.