International Poetry Circle of the Air: Light in the Darkness
December 17, 2005 Saturday 2PM CT
( listen)
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Jean Feraca hosts Here on Earth's Winter Solstice Poetry Circle of the Air with Molly Peacock this hour, featuring Iraqi poet, Saadi (SAH-dee)Youssef (YOU-sef).
Guest
- Molly Peacock, author of "Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems," and the creator of the one-woman show, "The Shimmering Verge," based on her poetry.
Related Links
Poems to Be Discussed
Night in Al-Hamra
By Saadi Youssef, Translated from Arabic by Khaled Mattawa
A candle on the long road
A candle in the slumbering houses
A candle for the terrified stores
A candle for the bakeries
A candle for the journalist shuddering in an empty office
A candle for the fighter
A candle for the doctor at the sick bed
A candle for the wounded
A candle for honest talk
A candle for staircases
A candle for the hotel crowded with refugees
A candle for the singer
A candle for the broadcasters in a shelter
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a stripped apartment
A candle for the sky that has folded
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the end
A candle for the final decision
A candle for conscience
A candle in my hand
Candle Poem
By Helen Dunmore
A candle for the ship's breakfast
eaten while moving southward
through mild grey water
with the work all done,
a candle for the house seen from outside,
the voices and shadows
of the moment before coming home,
a candle for the noise of aeroplanes
going elsewhere, passing over,
for delayed departures, embarrassed silences
between people who love one another,
a candle for sandwiches in service stations
at four a.m., and the taste of coffee
from plastic cups, thickened with sugar
to keep us going,
a candle for the crowd around a coffin
and the terrible depth it has to fall
into the grave dug for everyone,
the deaths for decades to come,
our deaths; a candle for going home
and feeling hungry after saying
we would never be able to eat the ham,
the fruit cake, those carefully-buttered buns.
Soundbites and Music Used in the Program
- Steve Hulse - "Here Comes The Sun" - From the album Jazzed for the Beatles - Kindred Spirits Music
- Saadoun Al-Bayati - "Samra'u min qawm Isa" - From the album Songs of Iraq - Samar Enterprises
- Saadoun Al-Bayati - "Marrayna bikum, Hamid" - From the album Songs of Iraq - Samar Enterprises
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