Sarah Maguire

Sarah Maguire is the only living English-language poet with a book in print in Arabic - her selected poems, Haleeb Muraq, translated by Saadi Yousef.

Poem: ‘Ramallah’

Sarah Maguire, 23 August 2001

Freezing out of season     with Eid after Easter – a provisional city    a concatenation of loose roundabouts     building sites   and razor wire – scars of forced demolitions    spite     occupation and new wealth Little Bantustan       rimmed twice...

Two Poems

Sarah Maguire, 10 July 2003

For Kathleen Jamie

Waist-height, clouds of white lace in the abandoned graveyard,

the delicate, filigree umbels matching

the thumbprints of lichen embroidering the graves. A deep current of blue

surges below – bluebells, moments of sky

fallen, brief weather fixed on wet stems,

conjuring a climate gone from this chill April dusk, as rain comes, and light fades.

Field Capacity

The plump...

Imagining the Suburbs

Stan Smith, 9 January 1992

Whole systems of thought have been founded on the French language’s inability to distinguish differing from deferring. Perhaps Napoleon is to blame (‘Not tonight, Josephine’)....

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