Let us be gentle Tonight: When hordes Of vampires Drift away Before dawn Let me sleepwalk into your eyes Sleep deeply in my arms Breathe my indolent pulse Take the roads Off my mind- This serenity This confident yield Between strangers Is love © Jad El Hage Jad El Hage’s published works include in Arabic, … Continue reading
Dry defying fingers drop Today’s papers before me – A youth drank and bled He made the front page Dotted by the morning drizzle I’d seen him before A rocky village on his shoulders He sang out of tune: ‘I wish love was an open door I wish love was a raining rainbow’ Mad, he … Continue reading
The sky breaks like a mirror And yawns fire A Princess whores the Dragon A straw splits the river in half A pirate drowns in a stream And we stray, rolls of ricks In a storm, Locusts feed on us. Unthinkable that the babies cry The adolescents fall in love The pregnant submit to labour. … Continue reading
Let there be snow My beloved tucks her hair under a pillow of smiles Let there be snow My beloved sleeps in the open like a morning star Let there be snow My beloved shields the olive tree where the Master knelt to pray Let there be snow My beloved tames the wind – a … Continue reading
Jad El Hage is a Lebanese / Australian poet, novelist and playwright. He published his first creative works of poetry in 1966. He has worked as a journalist since he was sixteen, and also as a book editor and radio-broadcaster in Beirut, Paris (Radio Monte Carlo), Athens (Harlequin Arab World), London (BBC World Service) and Sydney. … Continue reading
“I think that human beings lock birds in cages because they themselves are incapable of flying” – Unknown Mirella Salame is a young Lebanese artist whom I met last Sunday at MACAM, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum. She is a participant in the Age of Wood sculpting competition. Her performative installation is titled freedom and … Continue reading
Enjoying summer to the full in Lebanon is all about the beach and the night life. As the sun sets in Beirut, the madness of its streets subsides and the city’s eccentricity moves across to the bars and the nightclubs. Beirut offers some of the hottest roof-top bars in the world, but other places offer some … Continue reading
A visit to a shoe repair shop in a nearby town followed by a couple of questions lead to a story experienced by the cobbler at the age of seventeen. After examining my shoe, he told me I could take a seat and he will mend it on the spot, sparing me another trip back. The … Continue reading
Whenever I have made this dish for friends’ dinner parties, it always disappears in no time. What I love about it is that it goes really well with other dishes, but if you serve it with rice and fresh lemon wedges, it makes a great main dish. It is very easy and quick to prepare, … Continue reading
Poem and Dish 