Category Archives: Blog

Blog, Blog items, Short stories, Sources/Related Material

SOAS Rebetiko

Rebetiko, the blues of the Greek refugees from Asia Minor, and of Turkey, is alive and well. A “Byzantine blend of the Turkish rhythms brought by the immigrant Greeks uprooted from their homes in Asia Minor with the contemporary Greek music of the twenties and thirties,” it can be heard Monday nights haunting the corridors and the JCR (Junior Common Room) of SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies, in London. I went to listen to the Rebetiko band this week and was amazed at the quality of sound and soulful singing.

SOAS Rebetiko
SOAS Rebetiko

The band SOAS Rebetiko describe themselves as follows:

“The Famous SOAS Rebetiko Band plays Rebetiko music of Greece, a broad genre of urban songs and instrumental music which developed in and around the major port areas of Eastern Mediterranean — Smyrna/Izmir, Istanbul, Syros, Piraeus and Thessaloniki.” 

I listened to this music growing up in a community of first- and second-generation refugees from Asia Minor, in Athens, and hearing it being played again, reminded me of the depth of feeling expressed through it; through the songs of loss and mourning, but also resistance, survival and life affirmation sang by the refugees.

Blog, Haiku, News, Other Writers

NeverEnding Story

Chen-ou Liu (劉鎮歐), Chinese-Canadian poet, essayist, editor, translator, with numerous awards up his poetic sleeve, has started a new web-based project titled NeverEnding Story, a First English-Chinese Bilingual Haiku and Tanka Blog,  in which he aims, in his words,

“to fulfill my butterfly dream portrayed in the haibun, entitled “To Liv(e),” which was published in Frogpond, 34:3, Fall 2011. I hope it can bring the beauty of English language Japanese short form poetry to Chinese readers around the world”

His dream is  to put NeverEnding Story on the literary map of “Cultural China,” the one “that has been promoted by Tu Weiming (杜維明), Research Professor and Senior Fellow of Asia Center at Harvard University, who authored “Cultural China: The Periphery as the Center,” Daedalus, Vol. 134, No. 4,  Fall, 2005, pp. 145-167.”

Chen-ou has already collected a good number of poems and it seems to me he is well on his way to turning his dream into reality.

I am really honored to be included in this project, and for my poem to be translated into Chinese. It can be read in its English and Chinese forms here

Do visit NeverEnding Story, and if you are a haiku or tanka poet, do submit. There is an anthology on the cards, and essays, lit crit and more wonderful stuff on offer.

Blog, Other Writers

January 2013: A buzzing Per Diem month

This month, the The Haiku Foundation Per Diem goes entomological! Insects, bugs, arachnids… Cherie Hunter Day’s collection for the January 2013 Per Diem: Daily Haiku is full of buzz!

She says: “This Per Diem is a chance to rediscover: click of a deathwatch beetle, the taste of hive in the honey, and the architecture of a just spun web. We again visit with water striders, praying mantises, dragonflies, crickets, and maybe even a lowly flea.”

I look forward to the splendid haiku, especially since they bring back to me the insect life of my childhood.

The daily Per Diem poems (one a day, every day), can be found here. 

Happy New Year!

aros, Blog, Haiku, NaHaiWriMo

Season’s Greetings and book voucher

1 Comment

Season’s Greetings to all my friends. May your coming year be filled with beautiful moments!
Thank you all for the inspiration, company, and support through 2012.

Season's Greetings
Season’s Greetings

 

 

 

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In case you have time over the holidays, here is a coupon (code: FB59R — valid from 25–29 December 2012) for a free e-book version of my “In the Garden of Absence” from Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/263461