This week’s poem, by Kerem Durdag, is a paean to roses, a mother who loved and listened to them, and the enduring love of a son. I love the elemental clarity of this poem’s imagery, and the clear tenderness that runs through it, between plants and people alike.

Kerem Durdag is a business executive, poet, translator of works from Turkish and Urdu to English, essayist, librettist, advocate for immigrant voices, award-winning film producer, and participant in conversations across Maine. He lives in Scarborough. 

Roses

there are roses outside my window
actually 
a single rose today

my mother loved roses
absolutely loved them
and in her garden
on the coast of the Aegean
where the sun was bright
the water valuable
and the milky way of history 
strewn across on the dirt
she talked to her roses
every day
loving them, cajoling them,
asking them, listening to them,
as she gently touched them
her face right up
close to their eyes

and those roses
ask for her
every day
wondering where she is
what memories should stay in the
folds of their petals
where is the person 
who was their person

I say to the rose outside my window
I am here
for you

– Kerem Durdag

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. DEEP WATER: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Roses” ©2025 by Kerem Durdag, appears by permission of the author.