It was my pleasure recently to give a first reading from the Poetry in McGregor 2022 Anthology, Touching the Wild. … Read More
“That Poem”
In my novel, ‘The Master’s Ruse’, the two main protagonists, an aging authoress and a former professor of English — … Read More
The Truth of My Heart on This Autumn Night
Two of my friends died last month.One elected to take her own life, the other fought against dread disease, holding … Read More
Note Ten to Vladimir Putin and a Re-Phrasing of The Twenty-Third Psalm
Leaving the body and soaringlike a drone,flying just above the bombed buildings and seeingthe child’s hands,the woman’s boot,the smashed cornices,the … Read More
The Triumph of Phoebe
Recently, three children, under the exact instruction of their father, tortured a puppy and then set her alight. Her terrible … Read More
Note Nine to Vladimir Putin: In the Words of Wilfred Owen
In each lifetime there are certain books that should be read more than once for they caution against the catastrophic … Read More
Note Eight to Vladimir Putin: The Old Woman on Day Eighty-Four of the Russia-Ukraine War
That old womanlived through the Holodomor the second of the World Wars Stalin.She ate weeds and chewed leather.Now your cock … Read More
Note Seven to Vladimir Putin: Three Angels on Day Seventy of the Russia-Ukraine War
There are three Angels. Into their bronzelight, steps your mother bearinga loaf of dark breadand red cherry juice in a … Read More
Notes Five and Six to Vladimir Putin During the Russia Ukraine War
Note Five on Day Thirty-four Now look!You’ve burst the buttons of your pompous Emperor jacket—Those little buttons made of children’s … Read More
The Solitary Traveller
It was with great pleasure that I recently represented Poetry in McGregor in launching David Friedland’s new book “The Solitary … Read More
Notes to Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine
Note One: On the Tenth Day You seem to share, with all tyrants,a fetish for piled corpsesfor eyeballs blown from … Read More
The Archbishop Is Dead! Long Live the Archbishop!
Last Thursday, I was privileged to attend, with my daughter, the honouring and celebration of Archbishop Tutu’s life. The eulogies … Read More
Barbed wire around the human heart
What can be done about those now labelled Migrants and Refugeesthose caught up on the border between Belarus and Polandthose … Read More
Refurbishing the human heart through poetry
Poetry in McGregor recently held two Literary Aperitifs at Woodlands Eatery in Cape Town. These were in anticipation of the … Read More
In the Small Matter of Conscience
Some days have an extraordinary measure to them as did today.I woke long before dawn.The moon, waning, was still quite … Read More
The Tiers of Charity
Wednesday is garbage day in my area and there is always an interesting juxtaposition between what is thrown out by … Read More
The Great Fire of 2021
I was in the Cederberg mountains when the Great Fire of 2021 consumed the library of the University of Cape … Read More
The Arrows of Fate
THE ARROWS OF FATE Every Thursday for the past five weeks, I have travelled the M5 from Cape Town to … Read More
Reflecting on Confinement
I heard tell of a man who was wrongly accused of murder and spent forty-three years in solitary confinement, in … Read More
“Farewell! A long farewell to all your greatness”
Sometimes a person enters your life and you instantly have the sense of ‘Friend’. Many years may go by, in … Read More
Art & poems of release & redemption
I went seeking art while confined during the Corona Lockdown. This was found at various times of each day, looking … Read More
Human Silence During ‘Lockdown’
Now the planet rests. For the first time since industrialisation, we have ceased to overpower the sounds of the natural … Read More
Compassion during a time of pestilence
Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, the Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli gifted the world with a concert that was streamed live on … Read More
Day one of 21-day coronavirus seclusion
Now we enter a 21-day period of seclusion.It is an essential seclusion, ordained by government in the face of pestilence.Yet … Read More
Found confessions relating to our abuse of the natural world
I have long considered that we are already within an ecological apocalypse— it is not something coming— it’s here. The … Read More