Poetry and Photography by Elvin Karda Gökce

Pondering and Wondering - taken with Canon 500D, 2022. // In wonder, I yearn to raise my eyes and lose myself in the beauty of knowing and understanding. Above, I seek answers to questions I cannot yet wholly articulate, though I bear them silently within my heart. Above are the eternal Forms, the primordial originals of all our earthly reflections. Above shines the promise of ascent - yet here I stand below, pondering whether I must first sink deeper before I may once more strive towards the light.

When happiness takes hold of me, its embrace is not made of silk, but a sea of flames. A kind of drunken bliss that burns in my lungs. On summer nights, during short walks, I am filled with an endless desire to keep going. A lovely conversation, the stars above my head – why not set off for foreign lands with nothing but the clothes on my back?

//

'I am a worm and not a man.' [psalm 22:6] - taken with Canon 500D, 2022. //

Vermis Sum - inspiriert von Jan van Ruusbroec

In der Liebe uns selbst gestorben Im Genießen das Ich ausgegossen Im eigenen Wesen leben durch die Minne und allzeit sterben durch göttliche Sinne

Sterbendes Leben, lebendes Sterben Es berühren den brennenden Funken Hingabe und Verschenken Aufgezehrt und abgelegt die Eigenheit selig im ledigen Sein

Übung der Liebe ist frei und schont sich nicht Ihre Natur ist mild und begehrlich sie fordert und bietet, gibt und nimmt Der minniglichen Einkehr Ursprung und Beginn

Wahre Liebe sucht nicht was ihr nicht gehört Traumwandelnd, scheinbar tanzende dieser Welt in schwindelnden Höhen der Gedankenflug Nicht Mensch bin ich, sondern Wurm

The Artisan's Wondrous Fate - taken with Canon 500D, 2022. // "The artisan, above all others, has the most curious of fates in this regard. How often does he devote his entire mind and all his passion to creating spaces from which he must exclude himself! The royal halls owe their splendour to him, yet he does not share in their greatest impact. In the temples, he draws a line between himself and the Holy of Holies; he may no longer tread the steps he laid for that heart-lifting solemnity, just as the goldsmith worships the monstrance only from afar, having arranged its metalwork and precious stones. The architect hands over to the rich man, along with the key to the palace, all comfort and ease, without sharing in any of it. Must not art gradually thus distance itself from the artist, if the work, like a well-dressed child, no longer reflects back upon the father?"

I turn away from you, O Sun! – I have enough life within me that will never come to fruition. Why do you tickle my green shoots – why do you lie? Your light is not my light, and what you bring to growth is not mine! //

not my light - taken with Sony Alpha 7 II, 2026.

beach of the sleeping giants - taken on film with Minolta X-300, 2024. //

Foaming, surging — brought to a boil, come to spill away; drawn into the chasms of the sea, still swimming while drowning.

Amid the oceans, bridges were built; the water consecrated, blessed by the devout. The seven highest mountains — too low to come anywhere near the longing. The strings of the lute have spoken for the parched mouth. To win love, the self has been lost in floods of salt.

Does joy blind your vision? - taken with Sony Alpha 7, 2026. // Colours evolve in response to the changing sky, the weather and shifting light conditions. But colours can also appear and feel different from within: are clouds hanging over our hearts, or does joy blind our vision? In a fleeting moment, the dreamer may catch a glimpse of an unfamiliar nuance or, from the depths of our emotions, experience a sense of a higher reality.

It was like my own pilgrimage: walking at least ten kilometres in all weathers for five years. In winter, the cold made my fingers swell up and throb with pain. Yet in those few seconds when I framed a shot with my camera, those were the rare moments when my mind went blank – breaks during which I didn’t think, but simply existed in the world. // I simply existed - taken with Canon 500D, 202?.

As the fog in the morning hours settles over streets and hovers around spires, so too does a veil lie over some things, making it not only difficult but almost impossible for most observers to recognize everyday yet extraordinary experiences of beauty. To find beauty in the sun is a gift many can share, but to recognize a peculiar grace in the shadows, in the lost, in the ownerless, and to be able to share it is friendship, is love, is felicity. //