The İstanbul School

I saw this article in Feb 17th's Economist, and Dan's name jumped out. We haven't heard any more details. His service is March 17 in Alabama, and I sent the citation to Chris to send on to his family. The article is A Byzantine Journey, a review of John Ash's The Parthian Stations.

When Mr. Ash's 2004 collection "To the City" came out, Poetry, a leading American literary magazine, said that he "could be the best English poet of his generation". Now he may also be the doyen of a new "Istanbul School".

Several English-speaking poets are publishing work that, like Mr. Ash's, use the city as a vivid background against which to weave themes of East and West. There is the easy fluidity of Sidney Wade of Florida, the wry melancholy of Mel Kenne of Texas and the keen eye of Alabama's late Daniel Pendergrass for the theater of the streets. James Wilde of Canada writes savagelyof war, Edward Foster pens gay odes and George Messo, an Englishman, is working on an epic.

I went digging around to see what this İstanbul School was. Too bad blogs are always in reverse. Today will be a day to post recipes and poetry, but you'll only know why after [and if] you read through all of them to get here.