Kayakoy - A Ghost Town

Kayakoy - A Ghost Town

 By Kate Newlyn ~ Kayakoy ~ 2014

Hazy in the morning mists

A village sleeps.

Its secrets locked

In rust

And crumbling walls.

And dust on dust.

Terraced houses steep

Rise tall

And fall

Into the sleeping valley.

Nothing stirs.

Doorways open onto hollow rooms

And broken shutters gape now

Where the eyes once were.

Only the soft murmur of the bees

Disturbs the dreams

Of generations here.

The kaleidoscopic chaos of a woven town,

Sounds of laughter, gossiping and lies,

Of love's first kisses and of children's cries,

Of polished stones where goats and men once trod.

A vibrancy of intermingled tongues,

And dreams.

And Gods.

No colour here now though.

Stones bleached white as bone.

But in the barbed dry grasses,

As the hot winds blow,

There:

A splash of crimson,

Where the poppies grow.

~ ~ ~

Inspired by the amazing ghost town of Kayakoy in the southwest of Turkey, an ancient town formally populated by a happy mixture of Greeks and Turks.  Ravaged by the first world war and immediately afterwards decimated by Ataturk's enforced population exchange of Greeks for Turks.  Later battered by a series of earthquakes, this town stands as a monument to the ravages of man and nature.
The inspiration for this poem and a series of sculptures has been derived from its history as well as the beautifully written novel: "Birds Without Wings" by Loius de Benieres.  I dedicate it to the people of Kayakoy, past and present.

Tribute To the Dispossessed  by K. Newlyn 2013
photographed in the old Greek chapel at the top of Kayakoy's Ghost town.

~ ~ ~


Images of the other sculptures can be found on my website: http://www.katenewlyn.com/ 

As well as info on the Sculpture Course~Cruises