[Uri Avnery posted this piece on Shimon Peres on September 24, 2016, thus 2 days before Peres died. I reproduce it here because I think it is a more accurate evaluation of Peres than the various obits that have appeared since last night.] SHIMON PERES is a genius. A genius of impersonation. All his life he has worked on his public persona. The image replaced the man. … Read more The Saga of Sisyphus: Avnery on Peres
Press release by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 26/09/2016 When the summer rains in China are weak, they are strong in Australia, and vice versa – scientists have discovered a previously unknown see-saw relationship between these two monsoon regions. This effect does not occur from one year to another, but on decadal and centennial time scales. To detect the pattern, the team developed a novel mathematical method … Read more Giant see-saw of monsoon rains detected
It gives me great pleasure to publish David Larsen’s translations & introductions on this core text of 8 century poems with 10 century comments from the classical, though unhappily too little known (at least in Euro-American lands) Arab literary tradition. See also his translation of al Sukkari’s version of the same poem on my Jacket2 blog. The curtailment of artistic freedom is an unusual thing to praise. Literary translation … Read more A poem by Abu Sakhr al-Hudhali, as transmitted by Abu Ali al-Qali
…just 44 years old. He had been a major presence in my first years in New York City, as mentor & gentle commentator on my early poems. Here, for the occasion, a poem I wrote a few years later on another 13 September, thinking of Paul, New York and trying to be unusually (for me) O’Hara-ish (published in An American Suite): THE DAY PAUL BLACKBURN DIED for Frank … Read more Paul Blackburn died 45 years ago today…
Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte will be speaking in tongues Thursday in Philly. It starts at 6:30PM with yummy offering at the end! The Kelly Writers House located at 3805 Locust Walk on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. See you there! Multilingual Poetics: Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte Thursday, September 8, 6:30 PM · Philadelphia, PA
Pierre Joris Flash Interview #1 from Tawil Productions on Vimeo.
September 3, 2016 Civil War SOMETHING STRANGE happens to retired chiefs of the Israeli internal Security Service, Shin Bet. The service is by definition a central pillar of the Israeli occupation. It is admired by (Jewish) Israelis, feared by Palestinians, respected by security professionals everywhere. The occupation could not exist without it. And here is the paradox: once the chiefs of the service leave their jobs, they become spokesmen … Read more Uri Avnery: Civil War
Just heard from his close friend, the poet Habib Tengour, that the great Algerian writer Nabile Farès died on Wednesday. A brief bio-note (revising the Wikipedia entry) for those who don’t know Farès or his work, followed by a little essay I wrote some years ago: Born in Collo, Algeria, Nabile Farès participated, during the Liberation war, in the strikes of the high school students in 1956, before joining the ranks of the National … Read more Nabile Farès (1940-2016)
20. I will not come back to hear Ella Fitzgerald sing over the columns. Neither will she. 21. Clouds pile up, turn into human forms on the bed of rivers an inscription always dissolves, then appears again, as the sky has already told me. 22. When no one is waiting for us any longer, there’s death, so faithful. 23. Broken souls are not anonymous, no more than the geometry … Read more BAALBECK by Etel Adnan (4)