Watch Brian Cox read ‘If I Must Die’ by murdered Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer

GAZA casualties live statistics On December 7, the beloved Palestinian poet, writer, literature professor, and activist Refaat Alareer was killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, his sister, and four of her children. In the week of mourning since, tributes to Alareer’s life, writing, mentorship, and activism have flooded in from around the… Read More Watch Brian Cox read ‘If I Must Die’ by murdered Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer

14th February 202414th February 2024 Dilip

Anna Akhmatova: Three poems including ‘Requiem’ / Friendship in the time of terror: Nadezhda Mandelstam’s tribute to Akhmatova

First posted December 04, 2011 Reading HamletTo the right, wasteland by the cemeterybeyond it the river’s dull blue.You said: ‘Go, get thee, to a nunneryor get a fool to marry you…’ Though that’s always how Princes speak,still, I’ve remembered the words.As an ermine mantle let them stream,behind him, through endless years. ‘Hands clasped under the… Read More Anna Akhmatova: Three poems including ‘Requiem’ / Friendship in the time of terror: Nadezhda Mandelstam’s tribute to Akhmatova

8th February 2024 Dilip

Black thread in the brightness: the second death of Pablo Neruda

By Graciela Mochkofsky It may come as no surprise that a country as deeply polarized by its recent history as Chile is also at war over the relevance of its preëminent poet, Pablo Neruda. In December, fifty years after the coup d’état that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, Chileans rejected an attempt to write a new constitution… Read More Black thread in the brightness: the second death of Pablo Neruda

7th February 20247th February 2024 Dilip

Javed Akhtar recites Waqt, his poem on Time

NB: This is the simplest and most brilliant philosophical reflection on time I have heard. Here is Javed Akhtar’s own explanation of it at the Kolkata Literary Festival, 2022; and here is one of his recent recitals, at the Faiz Festival in 2018. It begins around 4.30 minutes into the video. Javed sahib shukriya. DS… Read More Javed Akhtar recites Waqt, his poem on Time

4th February 20244th February 2024 Dilip

The Old Astronomer to His Pupil / Stunning New Footage Of Earth

First posted June 30, 2015 The Old Astronomer to His Pupil Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of howWe are working to completion, working on from then to… Read More The Old Astronomer to His Pupil / Stunning New Footage Of Earth

16th January 2024 Dilip

J. L. Borges: A New Refutation of Time

Before me there was no time, after me there will be none With me it is born, with me it will die Daniel von Czepko, Sexcenta Monidisticha Sapientum III, II (1655) the feeble artifice of an Argentine adrift on a sea of metaphysics . . . A word on the title: I am not unaware… Read More J. L. Borges: A New Refutation of Time

6th January 20246th January 2024 Dilip

The Bony King of Nowhere – Are You Still Alive

NB: For all those who think violence will put an end to violence; and that it’s not their problem anyway Are You Still Alive picture yourselfthe best way you canput it onlineand live up to it never weakeverything goes welland no alarmseverything to keep the dream alive nothing ever brings you downit is not your… Read More The Bony King of Nowhere – Are You Still Alive

5th January 20245th January 2024 Dilip

Moscow court hands long jail terms to two men for reciting anti-war poetry

A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced two men to years in prison for taking part in the recital of verses against the Ukraine campaign during an anti-mobilisation protest last year. Artyom Kamardin, 33, received a seven-year sentence for reciting a poem, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, was sentenced to five and a half years for attending the protest.… Read More Moscow court hands long jail terms to two men for reciting anti-war poetry

29th December 202329th December 2023 Dilip

Read Anne Boyer’s extraordinary New York Times resignation letter

By Dan Sheehan It’s been a hell of a 24 hours for writers demonstrating moral courage. Last night at the National Book Awards, over a dozen NBA finalists took to the stage to use their moment in the spotlight to oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and to call for a ceasefire. Then, earlier this morning,… Read More Read Anne Boyer’s extraordinary New York Times resignation letter

18th November 2023 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: Poetry