E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

2015 has been a year of outrages - terrorism - a word which may have its origins, as some rather crass pundits wryly observed, in the rampant and often cruel massacres of the French revolutionary period.  The West - no stranger to cruelty to the Other and others itself at least since its settlers and explorers raped, tortured, and pillaged across the Americas - and in two World Wars the perpetrators of the worst atrocities in human history (the Holocaust, the dropping of nuclear weapons) - has finally met its match. Civilization was once used to contrast the good with the barbaric.  The endless random killing masterminded by half-insane fanatics and fantasists, motivated by a medieval theology of incompatible Jihad, has cast itself as the new normal of barbarism. IS, the current bogeyman, though having never put forth a 9/11 style spectacular, instead went all Digital Age on our asses, chopping off heads for our apps and iPhones, smashing ancient cities for the camera...

News from the city of lights... Paris Lit Up Magazine – Call for Submissions   A new and brightly lit magazine of poetry and prose will hit the Paris anglophone scene in May 2013. We are looking for writing in English from writers based in Paris, France and beyond to bring the very best contemporary work to our readers. P lease send us up to three previously unpublished poems or 2,000 words of prose to magazine@parislitup.com The deadline for submissions is 28 February 2013 . Please note we provide only contributors’ copies as we are a non-profit community organisation. The Editors - Helen Cusack O’Keefe, Jason Francis Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes , and Julie Poole .

Sad news .  John Kliphan , the poet who founded the longest-running anglo-Parisian poetry series, Live Poets (now Poets Live) died Thursday, January 26, 2012. At 2:15 p.m. his heart slowed and came to a stop in the presence of close friends. OPEN INVITATION When: Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. Where: Salle Coupole, Crematorium, Père Lachaise Cemetery (map attached) Enter the cemetery from Avenue du Père Lachaise near GAMBETTA Metro Station (lines 3 and 3bis). Please allow ample time to walk in from the street. A CELEBRATORY POETRY READING IN HONOR OF JOHN'S LIVING MEMORY IS BEING PLANNED FOR LATE FEBRUARY. Tentative date: Sunday, February 26, 2012. Please mark your calendars. Plan d’accès : Le Crématorium se trouve dans l’enceinte du cimetière du Père Lachaise. L’entrée du Crématorium se fait par l’avenue du Père Lachaise, accessible par la place Gambetta. Métro : Gambetta (lignes 3 et 3bis) Bus : Gambetta (n°102 et 69) ou Ramus (n°26) ...

Sad news.  The world's greatest bookshop owner, and one of the great expats of all time, big-hearted, eccentric George Whitman , of kilometre zero's Shakespeare & Company, has died, at the lovely age of 98.  I lived in Paris for a few years (2001-2003) and, like thousands of other young writers, knew his generosity.  My Whitman anecdote gives the measure of the man.  One day I came in and introduced myself, in 2002 or so, as a young poet.  Whitman invited me to "a small reading" later that afternoon.  Instead, imagine my surprise when I was asked to open (with a generous ten minutes or so) for Lawrence Ferlinghetti , to an audience of hundreds outside the shop, crowding the pavements.  In the audience was none other than George Plimpton , who I spoke with after.  One of the great memories of my life, and entirely thanks to the splendid wide decency and helpfullness of Whitman, who embodied some of the spirit of his namesake, and enacted al...