Keysar Trad's Forays of the Heart, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 October, 2013.

POETS AND POLLIES

Undercover Susan Wyndham

Here are five words you would not expect to see in one cosy sentence: Keysar Trad, Philip Ruddock and poetry. But last Sunday at Gleebooks in Glebe, Ruddock – who was Immigration Minister and Attorney-General in the Howard Government – launched Forays of the Heart, a book of poems by Trad (pictured), the well-known spokesman for Islam in Australia. Both men have been controversial and at times fought over refugees. They were brought together by John Stapleton, who has published Trad’s collection through his small press, A Sense of Place Publishing. Stapleton met Trad and worked with his daughter Sanna when he was a reporter at The Australian. When he asked Sanna if she had a book to publish she said ‘‘No, but my father writes poetry’’. Stapleton says the poems about unrequited love are intense, passionate, well written – and embarrassing to Trad’s nine children and perhaps his wife. The man who has argued for polygamy and described scantily clad women as ‘‘uncovered meat’’ writes about the ‘‘messiness of his own earthly longings’’, as ethicist Simon Longstaff puts it. Seeasenseofplacepublishing.com.