Category: refugees
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The lines quoted above come from a book-length poem by Cahit Koytak, a distinguished Turkish poet. In Turkish, the poem is called ‘Gazze Risalesi’ and addresses two Josephs in turn, one a Palestinian boy exposed to the bombing of Gaza, and the other an Israeli young man, a bomber pilot. Cahit Koytak talks to them…
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Putin’s Mind
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It is hard to put yourself in Putin’s mind. But how hard ? Is it impossible ? Maybe not. He looks out at the world and is much concerned with maintaining control and his own footing and security there. Consequently, he has always been pre-occupied with strengthening and extending borders, creating safe distance between him…
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Photograph by Dimitar Dilkoff : AFP via Getty Images Reproduced by permission of the poet and translators. Find the translation of the whole poem here. The “Poems for…the wall” website has a bilingual version on its home page. It can be viewed (and downloaded from) here. Thanks to the PEN Ukraine team…
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Across the Way
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“The Reader” is a national charity. “From its global Shared Reading movement, to its Calderstones Park home in Liverpool… “The Reader” builds lively communities that bring people together and books to life.” And my project “Poems for…the wall” and “The Reader” are exploring ways we might collaborate a bit. In the meantime, one of “The…
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Trace a Fraught Frontier
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Where’s the fraught frontier between Mercia and East Anglia ? Guards were stationed here gazing out from within. And within was somewhere to die for. And without was someone to kill. I explored it once, that fraught frontier, now footpath between nettles. It was sunday and Cambridge families were out walking there after a good…
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High Noon is Nearly Upon Us. Where’s the Sheriff ?
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Around the world, the hoodlums and outlaws are running amok, in their suits of armour made of lies. By contrast, the sheriffs seem downcast, overwhelmed and on the run. I feel downcast and overwhelmed, too. Might it mean that I’m a sheriff, in disguise ? But there is no star in my cupboard. The picture…