A World of Stone: New and Selected Poems

By Mireille Saba Redford

From Mireille Saba Redford, author of A City Across the Night, The Waltz of Dust and The Wounded Virtue, and translator and editor of The Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry, here is a new collection of English poems that will take you to a forgotten land where nothing seems to matter anymore.
A World of Stone adopts the voice of a woman who finds her life turned upside down when faced with the harsh realities of the modern world and clings to her childhood memories, when the land of legends was a truly mysterious and captivating place.
It highlights her love that could not overcome her pride, her loneliness caused by the many losses she has encountered, and her sorrows amidst the fast and sad changes in the world, such as humanitarian crises, drug abuse, violence, alienation, inequality, power in the hands of the few and abuse of human rights.
Throughout the poems, you will hear and feel all the torments, disappointments and cries which somehow have the power to change the way some perceive the world. However, there is a clear message that despite losing its ‘gentility’, the world can still have a ‘Margin of Peace’ that would guarantee its security and sustainability.
This book of love and anger, of the living and the dead, displays the values that once formed the very pillars of our society, and sends a call to restructure what is left and to stop the decline in civil liberties. Its vivid descriptions shed light on the poet’s own experiences, while stressing the need both to save a world on the brink and to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable by a return to the humanitarian principles of equality and justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528984294

Mireille Saba Redford

Mireille Saba Redford was born in Beirut before moving to Sydney where she worked as an interpreter and a newspaper editor, and wrote poetry and short stories which granted her an award at The Sydney Writers’ Festival. She has four publications including an Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry. She’s a teacher and a coordinator at a couple of universities in Beirut. Redford established two poetry magazines in English and is a proven team-leader encouraging excellence in performance.

Book preview

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About the Author

Mireille Saba Redford was born in Beirut before moving to Sydney where she worked as an interpreter and a newspaper editor and wrote poetry and short stories which granted her an award at The Sydney Writers’ Festival. She has four publications including The Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry.

Redford is a university professor and a college co-ordinator in Beirut. She established two poetry magazines in English and is a proven team-leader encouraging excellence in performance. She has recently been named as one of the best poets of the century by STARS Illustrated magazine – New York Press.

Dedication

To you, Dad.

To you, Chris.

And to the One who’s out there…

Mireille Saba Redford

A World of Stone

New and Selected Poems

Copyright © Mireille Saba Redford (2021)

The right of Mireille Saba Redford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Cover painting by Juliano Habib.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528984270 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528984287 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781528984294 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgements

Writing a poetry book has not been an easy task amidst the hustle and bustle of daily commitments. But none of this would have been possible without the people who have walked into my life, whether temporarily or permanently, but kept me going. 

I am eternally