In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: arts

  • Where in the World does Poetry Belong ?

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    I run a project called “Poems for…” It  offers poem-posters free of charge for public display. Many of the poems are bilingual, with over fifty different languages represented so far. The poems go to schools and libraries and healthcare waiting rooms across the UK and in fact all over the world. Here below is a…

  • Cat vies with Hard Drive for my soul

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    A psychiatrist called Iain McGilchrist has written what in my opinion is an extraordinary and important book called “The Master and his Emissary – The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.”  I feel instantly at home with, and liberated by, its central thesis. Here is a quote from the blurb on the…

  • Word from Myanmar

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    Last week, I added six new poems to the bilingual collection called “Poems for…one world.” All the new poems were Burmese, our fifty-first language. Remember that Burmese is a language whose speakers are themselves presently learning to be free again, to speak freely. You can access the six poems here .  You can read the…

  • A Statement of Principle in time for Christmas

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    I suspect that many of us see “principle” as something we can just hive off and leave in airy-fairy land while we hurry out to do our Christmas shopping.  So I’ll say straightaway that, on the contrary,  true and meaningful principle may in the end be the only fact that counts, far more significant and…

  • The Resignation of Denis MacShane

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    Denis MacShane was Minister for Europe under Tony Blair.  He brought a wider and more cultured vision and experience to that role than many politicians and activists  ever get near, at least in this country. For instance, he  translated into English a Brecht poem for “Poems on the Underground”.  He also responded positively to a…

  • In fervent hope of the re-election of Barak Obama

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    I wrote the poem below in 2008, in wonder, delight and trepidation at the election of Barack Obama. Was America ready for this wonderful development ? The answer would appear to be, barely. Four years later, he is still there, but has had to fight for every inch of movement into the light, restrained and…

  • After Rain

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    sculpture by Dorothy Love at www.dorothylove.co.uk… continue reading

  • The “Poems for…” project – a new collection has been uploaded , crossing new frontiers

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    A new collection of mainly bilingual poems has been uploaded on the Poems for… website. It consists of sixty poems, most of them bilingual. Eventually this sixty will join and become one with the collection of forty five poems  launched a few years ago, called “Poems for… One World.” The new collection has taken three…