Island of Strangers
Island of Strangers
This is an Island of Strangers,
each one
with their own small pile of stones.
They don’t speak to each other.
They don’t need to.
The intention is shared,
unspoken.
The pile is always there.
Each stone
smoothly worn.
Familiar in the hand.
They don’t always throw.
Sometimes they just stand,
watching.
Sometimes silence
is their cruellest signal.
But the stones
are not decorative.
They are ready.
And the Black body,
the one in the centre,
(always in the centre)
must read the air,
must anticipate
who will lift first.
Who will pretend
not to understand
what they’re holding.
On this island,
the strangers do not touch.
But together,
they‘ll take aim.
Mother Tongues
The Moroccan writer and filmmaker Abdellah Taïa's dedication to his mother
Remembering Parnia Abbasi
The tragic death of a young Iranian poet killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Finding Poetic Inspiration in Uncertainty
Poet Anthony Anaxagorou explores his approach to poetic inspiration, embracing the confused, vulnerable and ordinary.
The New Carthaginians
Nick Makoha's new poetry collection inspired by the work of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
One To One: John & Yoko
Exploring the Ono-Lennon’s move into a small two room apartment in 1970s New York.
The Brightening Air
Desire and sacrifice compete in Conor McPherson's visceral family drama.
Preaching
'Preaching': A new poem by the T.S.Eliot Prize-winning poet Roger Robinson, from his forthcoming New and Selected collection, due from Bloomsbury in 2026.
Walking in the Wake
Walking in the Wake was produced for the Estuary Festival (2021) in collaboration with Elsa James, Dubmorphology and Michael McMillan who meditates on the River Thames as we follow black pilgrims traversing sites of Empire.
Illuminating, in-depth conversations between writers.
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The series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK.
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