Fifteen Iraqi Poets
So we need poets to challenge received notions, tell us what we don’t know, ask the questions we can’t answer, and wake us up to both doom and Utopia. — Translator and essayist Eliot Weinberger…
Category: Poets
Leçon de français d’aujourd’hui
Un poème de Thich Nhat Hanh Ne dites pas, je serai parti demain, car je ne cesse de naître, aujourd’hui encore. Regardez en profondeur : je nais à chaque seconde bourgeon sur une branche printanière,…
The Moon Cannot Be Stolen
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it…
They Will Want To Know More by Cristina Cousins
Dear Friends, Cristina came to hear Remi Kanazi last Wednesday and to see Five Broken Cameras and hear Iyad Burnat last Friday. I asked her if she’d be willing to write a response. This is what she…
Share the Wealth: Poetry Night Sunday 6 April
April is National Poetry Month. In that spirit, select a couple of your favorites, bring several copies to pass around, and we’ll surely hear a variety of poets, themes, historical periods, and styles. Don’t be…
To My Friends by Primo Levi
Dear friends, and here I say friends the broad sense of the word: Wife, sister, associates, relatives, Schoolmates of both sexes, People seen only once Or frequented all my life; Provided that between us, for…
Share the Wealth with Johannes Wich-Schwarz: German-Jewish Poetry after the Holocaust
“The Not-Word: German-Jewish Poetry after the Holocaust” What does it mean to write in German as a Jewish author after the Holocaust? Can poetry recover, reclaim, and renew language after unspeakable trauma? How do we…
Shema, Primo Levi
You who live secure In your warm houses Who return at evening to find Hot food and friendly faces: Consider whether this is a man, Who labours in the mud Who knows no peace Who…
Would You Say Something About Old Age by Nicanor Parra
WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT OLD AGE His students once asked Of Dr. Bertrand Russell & the venerable elder replied: Old age… A time like any other For fighting for a cause that’s just –Chliean…
Always Mantain only a Joyful Heart
Dear Chris, Thanks to you, I now have the following favorite Alice Walker poems from The World Will Follow Joy: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit Democratic Womanism Hope to Sin Only in the Service…