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Love Is Not A Young Man’s Game – poem: man, woman, re-union

TweetLove Is Not A Young Man’s Game Can you feel her sadness before she sheds her tears Can you sense her doubts before she shows her fears Do you simply hold her when that is all she needs Do you hear her not just listen wherever her heart leads Do you know her body as […]

Eternity – Poem: timelessness not endless time

Tweet Eternity Eternity seen as endless time leaves life’s mystery untouched A sentence with no point a story with no end a journey with no arrival a life with no youth or age knowledge with no wisdom beauty with no rebirth and love without its deepest power of loss Death is part of the grammar […]

Australia – unlike the movie, even the aborginal shaman has one leg to stand on

Tweet Australia – Baz Luhrman A Christmas party game: invent the worst film titles you can imagine that would put you off going to see a film at all. Some suggestions: Hilarious, Genius, The Movie, Driver, Power and Glory. The only thing that could have made Pearl Harbour a worse film would have been to […]

Gomorra – death as the price of a life you choose

Tweet Gommora – Matteo Garrone Thomas Hobbes, 16th Century English philosopher once described human life without government, state authority, as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Garrone’s award-winning film occupies a Hobbesian world: neither his Direction nor Maurizio Braucchi’s screenplay, based upon Roberto Saviano’s whistle-blowing book Gomorra (2006), make any attempt at a coherent narrative […]

Lemon Tree – Etz Limon: Palestine/Israel – allegory and metaphor

Tweet Lemon Tree – Eran Riklis At the very heart of this quiet, dignified film is a performance by Israeli-Arab Hiam Abbass of such power and stillness that it not only draws us into the pain and mental anguish of poor Palestinian widow Salma Zidane, but also resonates with the ancient Israeli/Palestinian conflict for which […]

The Day The Earth Stood Still – you say Klaatu, I say Keanu, let’s call the whole thing off

Tweet The Day The Earth Stood Still – Scott Derrickson Keanu Reeves is an Alien: it’s not often you get to write a sentence with three different meanings that is true whichever of them you apply. As a description of Keanu’s role in this re-make of the 50’s Sci-Fi classic it is factually true; as […]

President-elect Obama – Inauguration – a letter to America

TweetThe Inauguration of President-elect Obama – a world, not just American celebration. The celebration of president elect Obama’s inauguration will be shared by the world. Its ethnic and racial symbolism touches all nations, all people. A black US President will mark though not an end, a key milestone on the civilising journey from slavery and […]

Idjagiedas – CD review, world music, Norway, Mari Boine

Tweet Idjagiedas (In The Hand Of The Night) – Mari Boine This music has ancient roots. It strikes a deep chord within us, which resonates. Mari Boine is Sami, from northern Norway. A place we used to call Lapland. “Norway? Music? Get outta here”! Bear with me. Mari Boine has almost single-handedly resurrected indigenous Sami […]

Winter – Poem: in the bleak mid-winter

Tweet Winter Rain-teared trees carry lightly the loss of their fallen leaves naked wet-black they guard the gate of Winter At their rooted feet beneath the undug grave-soiled earth the hope of Spring tomorrow’s ice-hard life slumbers Chill-wind fingers tease and taunt the mourner’s warmth his blood life ebbing back to save his heart Death-white […]

Landmines – Poem: seeds of death

TweetLandmines As seeds of death are sown The roots of hate are grown And mothers cry As children die For a cause they’ve never known The drops of bloody rain Stain the soil with pain And men of pride Try to hide Their everlasting shame Heartbreak cries of shattered lives Go unrecognised As once again […]