Book of the Edge

The Poems In Book of the Edge are not overtly political.Some are not political at all. Those that make political statements do so in anunderstated, allegorical way. Temelkuran' s goal in these poems is to explorethe human condition, exposing our weaknesses and our potential. But her insightinto, and interpretation of, this human condition are undoubtedly inspired, atleast in part, by her socially involved upbringing and her many years of workas a journalist.The book is, to use Baudelaire's words, an invitation to avoyage. The speaker asks the reader to become an explorer, to leave the cityand embark upon a journey of self discovery. Although each poem stands alone,the poems work together to describe this quest: they turn into a modern, poetictable, in which speaker, explorer, and reader merge into one. `You may not knowit yet, says the speaker in the prologue, a wink at what is to come. `You arejust like me."