Salih Bolat

The first thing that must be said about Salih Bolat’s poetry is it is not feather-light. It leaves a lasting impression in pure, fine poems which construct an edifice. While simple and lucid things may be the key to Bolat’s poetics, he manages to do this in a most intense manner. Yet, as one of our wisest poets, he knows that grandiose poems are never the truly impressive ones.

Bolat’s aesthetics are built on the conflict of the ordinary with poetic reality. The primary source of his poetry is the life he absorbs through extrospection and allows to mature in the oak barrels of his own experience. The poet then ferments this reality with something just beyond language and finally distills what we might term a brand new life. Introspection follows on from extrospection. The new life is not surreal. It is simply just beyond reality.

Bolat knows very well that the borders of reality are the borders of language. By poetic means, he advances the borders of reality in order to reach the new reality standing right next to him, which he feels but cannot bestow meaning on, because giving meaning is an act of language. In this way he demonstrates that the only way to write realistic poetry without being restricted by given reality is to extend the borders of language.

He calls this “underlining the void”.