Category Archives: Poetry
The mighty pencil
The mighty pencil It’s just a pencil Making a mark in a specific place On a specific piece of paper On a specific day. It only takes a second or two, No time at all. Such a simple thing. But … Continue reading
Familiale (Jacques Prévert)
The mother is knitting The son is fighting She thinks it quite natural the mother And the father what is he doing the father? He’s doing business His wife is knitting His son is fighting He’s doing business He thinks … Continue reading
The Mathematics of Survival
Poetry gives our language the wings to fly and in difficult times we need strong wings. Starting with just the alphabet, the poetic form allows our ideas to soar. Just like those in our previous anthologies, the student poems in … Continue reading
Abdellatif Laâbi: attesting against barbarism.
The brilliant Moroccan poet, novelist and playwright Abdellatif Laâbi is the epitome of the engaged writer. Born in Fez in 1942, he studied at the University of Rabat and was one of the founders of the literary magazine Souffles in … Continue reading
From ‘Recovery’ by Rabindranath Tagore
from Recovery – poem no.10 from arogya by Rabindranath Tagore (1941) Lazily afloat on time’s stream, My mind turns to the sky. As I cross its empty expanses Shadowy pictures form in my eyes Of the many ages of the long past … Continue reading
Seeking refuge in poetry
I am So I have left everything But I am something. I have left everyone But I am someone. I have left there But I am here. Something, someone, here, now. September 2015 Links to poems about the refugee … Continue reading
Let Us Be Midwives! Sadako Kurihara
Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing by Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins. Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room; It was dark—not … Continue reading
