(HaberTürk Newspaper, 10 September 2015)
Poetry in motion.
Kazım Erdem has been driving a dolmuş (collective taxi) in
Üsküdar, Istanbul, for 20 years, but he is also a poet. In fact,
he keeps newspapers, magazines and books in his minibus so
his passengers will pick up his reading habit.
Erdem was born in 1970 in Ömeruşağı village in Kırşehir,
where he finished elementary school. Finding no work in his
village, he came to Istanbul - "where the streets are paved with
gold" - in 1992. During his twenty years as a driver he has
worked various dolmuş routes and now plies the Harem-Gebze
road.
Erdem's route: Üsküdar (blue dot) to Gebze (right center).
Erdem is known among his friends as "şair baba" (poet father)
and he has a book of poems into which he transformed his feelings
to verse. These days Erdem is preparing a second book of poetry
and he is also working on a novel about the life of dolmuş
drivers.
From asphalt roads of Ömeruşağı to Istanbul's golden ones.
While driving the longest dolmuş route in Istanbul, Erdem
endeavors to light the fire of reading under his passengers by
keeping newspapers, magazines and books in his vehicle for
passengers to pick up. His riders have met this effort with
appreciation.
Ömeruşağı village is in Akçakent district of Kırşehir.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder