RIP Mahmoud Darwish - National Poet, Universal Soul

Mahmoud Darwish is dead and this blog is now having the unfortunate look of an obituary column. Darwish was a supreme lyricist and a writer of great panache and vision. We used one of his most famous poems in a theatre play we produced back in April and it was easily one of the most powerful moments of the piece.

It's now time to address the question of who amongst the new generation of Arab poets can take on the mantle and move literature (and the art of the unsaid) forward. Things are hopeful and we will be watching this space.