Ahmet Murat

In Quest of the Simurgh Ahmet Murat

Ahmet Murat, one of the most important figures in modern Turkish poetry, has proved to be a skilled craftsman in language, continuing a narrative adventure from classical to modern poetry with immaculate Turkish phrasing and robust strings of verses. For these reasons and more, Ahmet Murat is a pioneering Turkish poet. When Ahmet looks at the world, he looks from the top of a poetic mountain, and he sees God in small places everywhere in the everyday world. But his vision does not fill him with pride. Like the lone bird who arrives, he turns to the rest of the birds and says, "Look how close God is to all of us. Here he is, and here and here. We do not need to travel to the end of the world. To see him, we only need to look at one another with kindness and compassion, and look at the world with gratitude and wonder."