Gibraltar remains a constant for poet David Chevasco living in Japan

Gibraltarian author David Chevasco has published three books, with his latest collection, Observations of Asia, of weakness, and of home, released in December 2025. Living in Japan, Mr Chevasco, in conversation with our Senior Reporter Eyleen Gomez, reflects on physical and emotional vulnerability, his experiences abroad and the enduring connection he feels to Gibraltar, Andalucia and his family.

Q. The word ‘weakness’ is in the title. What does weakness mean to you, and was there a particular period or experience that made you want to write about it?

A. Weakness in the title refers to both physical and mental weakness, both as a person recovering for three years from a serious parasite illness to a person dealing with emotional and mental anxiety.

Q. How has experiencing Japan and Asia as both an outsider and a long-term resident changed the way you see Gibraltar and the idea of ‘home’?

A. The idea of home does not change; it remains constant. Both in what I love about Gibraltar, and what its limitations are. Experiences living in Rome, Malaga, Reading, and Japan just give me more angles to observe Gibraltar from, painting an ever truer picture in my mind of what it represents, and what it could become.

Q. The book includes haiku in Spanish and looks back towards Gibraltar, Andalucia and your grandparents. Why did Spanish and using haiku feel like the right way to write about those memories?

A. I wouldn't say there is a right or wrong way to express feelings through writing. I was living in Malaga at the time and using Spanish often on a daily basis. I'm also perhaps not the most patient of writers, so the haiku is short and to the point, plus it reflects the culture that I married into.

Q. As a teacher and academic, you are used to certain texts and ways of writing books. Have you found writing poetry gives you a way to express yourself more freely than academic books might?

A. These things cannot be compared. I have been writing poetry since the age of 14, when becoming a teacher, a literature graduate, or an academic had never even crossed my mind.

If there's something to express, writing a poem has always been the easiest way to express it; to get it off my chest when it's hard to carry, or to offer my tribute to it, when its beauty requires a visible form.

Q. What is next for you?

A. Life is hard in Japan. I work weekdays and weekends; a full-time job and several part-time ones to earn what my family requires. As much as I would love more time to be creative, opportunities are few and far between these days, so it is hard to answer this at present.

David Chevasco has launched three books: Six Memoirs of a Childhood in Gibraltar, The Early Poems of a Travelling Gibraltarian, and, finally, a second collection of poems published in December 2025, Observations of Asia, of weakness, and of home.