Caravans of words have crossed spaces and centuries, ever since people started writing poems and fiction. Indeed words carry echoes that reach far. They weave worlds of their own, worlds we depend on to understand the one we inhabit, worlds we yearn for to get glimmers of hope, think or dream. That is why we are always so eager to read them. We inherit words from the

past but we live and travel with them in the present. And they take us where we can get an idea of what lies in our future. They are caravans inside and outside our minds. That is why they can take us across so many different territories, old and new, and we visit and revisit them, in the light of our times and what we are. Crossing cultures and languages is what Caesurae takes so much to heart. Poetry and fiction need to meet beyond borders to initiate and pursue dialogues that make the fabric of our lives richer through mutual discovery.

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In this Mana section, we have an interview of Gaston Bellemare, founder of the International Poetry Festival of Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. We have gathered poems and fiction from North Africa, North and South America, India and Europe. Some were written in English, others in Arabic, Spanish or French. We loved bringing them together, putting them side by side. We hope you will enjoy discovering each poet’s and each writer’s secret universe and find them as vibrant and fascinating as we did.

 

by Cécile Oumhani (Editor)

 

POEMS

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1. Meena Alexander

2. Mercedes Roffé

3. Habib Tengour

4. Moncef Ouhaibi

5. Claudine Bertrand

6. Marilyn Hacker

7. Nabanita Kanungo

8. Archana Sarat

9. Steffen Horstmann

10. Sapho

11. Sukrita Paul Kumar

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SHORT STORIES

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1. Ananda Devi

2. Hubert Haddad

 

INTERVIEW

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Gaston Bellamere- Interviewed by Cecil Oumhani.