Kung Fu Panda Ascends the Mountain: Ekphrasis
Kung Fu Panda is of course steeped in Chinese culture. One day I wondered what the Chinese thought about the film. It turned out that …
Darkness and Light: May Ziadeh and the Child’s Destiny
May Ziadeh’s poetry is evocative and striking. Her poem “The Child and I” is a notable example, and has a particular poignancy. The poem, which …
Dead Earth Dead Sea – A New Midrash
This poem was inspired by my muse (my beautiful wife) while we were on the Sydney ocean walk between Coogee and Bronte. As she was …
Kahlil Gibran’s On Love From the Prophet
From Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet: On Love Dal Profeta di Kahlil Gibran: Sull’amore Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love. And he raised his …
Marengo Chicken: the Battle that put Napoleon on the Throne
My poem below is about the Battle of Marengo (Piedmont, Italy, 14 June 1800) and “Marengo Chicken“, a dish inspired by the battle. In June …
Bones and Stones – Civilisation is Not Measured in Piled up Steel
In this poem I ask what we mean when we say ‘civilisation’. If you look at typical definitions you find answers that suggest complexity, hierarchy, …
Not the pages are divided
This poem was inspired by the process of translation and thinking about the physical book (the parallel text bilingual publication) in which the translations live. …
Words take flight: for Kahlil Gibran and May Ziadeh
This poem is dedicated to Kahlil Gibran and May Ziadeh. Both their lives ended tragically. They each possessed a remarkable freedom which allowed them to …
Pity the nation – from the Prophet of Kahlil Gibran
This is a second article on the poetry of Kahlil Gibran. In the first article I translated Gibran’s Arabic poem “The Night” into English. This …