This blog is an assemblage of bits of writing beginning in autumn 2007. Much of them have to do with a period of time spent in Istanbul and the experiences here; others are not directly related. Anybody who finds it is welcome to read it.
Throat is a throwaway name yet not without a certain sense. Istanbul stands astride a strait of sea, the Bosphorus, which in Turkish is Bogaz, which translates as Throat. Ships pass up and down this channel constantly, linking the Aegean via the Marmara to the Black Sea or vice versa. The strait separates Europe and Asia at this point. It is profound in the sense of being deep and covering a tectonic fault, but also for its rich human history - as well as its great physical beauty. Like an anatomical throat, it is a channel down which things pass in time, and has been the reason for the foundation of the city and its importance.
I do not neglect that anatomical sense either. Without a throat there is no voice. It is the shifting organ-pipe of the singer, the wind tunnel of the speaker (and, need it be added, the path to a man's stomach!).
There are strange winds blowing today, the climate is shifting fast, and we are moving with it. Perhaps something of that movement can be recorded here. Perhaps something of what remains can also be indicated.
