Jane's Writing Shed.

I'm often drawn to write about space related themes, so when I read that the closest neighbours to the Antarctic research base are the astronauts on board the ISS, that was enough to get me started. This poem was inspired by text and images by Dr Alexander Kumar published in the Guardian 2 July 2014. Minus eighty degrees If humans migrate into the sea of stars, this is how it might be one day. The Eastern Antarctic Plateau is white as Mars, the world's highest, driest desert. Wintering in the research base, Concordia, there's no way back for nine months, nothing for a thousand kilometers, nothing closer than the International Space Station. As much in common with space than earth, at night no-one locks doors and the only visitors consist of hallucinogenic day-glow flashes from the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights. Above all cold. Cold that steals your breath. Unendurable, almost.

Probably the best ten quid I've spent all year. I bought my copy of A Bird is Not a Stone in the book tent at the Edinburgh International Book Festival not really knowing what to expect. Using 'bridge' or literal translations of poems by 25 Palestinian artists, 29 Scottish poets have written new versions of these poems with the originals printed alongside. The book aims to be 'a cultural exchange, giving readers an insight into the political, social and emotional landscape of today's Palestine..', which may sound a bit academic but the poems themselves are often beautiful evocations of loss, occupation, love, children, death. Political, particular and universal. To illustrate how the poetry in this book works on several levels, here's the shortest poem, written by Liz Lochhead. 'Poverty' by Tareq Al-Karmy Bridge translation by Sandra Ernst All the Viagra in the world won't make the economy stand up. This is a wonderful book that d...