Venice masks

Saturday 30 June 2012

Manglish - Jacinta Ramayah

We speak a language called manglish
to us it is normal,
The queen’s grammar is so precise
we’ve made it informal.

Friday 29 June 2012

Blind Children - Israel Zangwill

Laughing, the blind boys
Run round their college lawn,
Playing such games of buff
Over its dappled grass.

Thursday 28 June 2012

The Spruce Tree - Heinrich Heine

A single spruce-tree, lonely,
On a northern mountain height,
Sleeps in a white blanket,
Draped in snow and ice.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Limits - Jorge Luis Borges

Of these streets that deepen the sunset,
There must be one (but which) that I’ve walked
Already one last time, indifferently
And without knowing it, submitting

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Casabianca - Felicia Hemans

The boy stood on the burning deck
  Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
  Shone round him o'er the dead.

Monday 25 June 2012

Mountain Life - Henrik Johan Ibsen

In summer dusk the valley lies
With far-flung shadow veil;
A cloud-sea laps the precipice
Before the evening gale:
The welter of the cloud-waves grey
Cuts off from keenest sight
The glacier, looking out by day
O'er all the district, far away,
And crowned with golden light.

Saturday 23 June 2012

Baby Girl Found - Francette Cerulli

He found her wrapped in a brown towel
Beside the highway department dumpster.
She was so cold she was blue, so new
her umbilical stump still drooped softly
from her belly like the limp stem
of some fantastic fruit.

Friday 22 June 2012

Fair Summer Droops - Thomas Nashe

Fair summer droops, droop men and beasts therefore,
So fair a summer look for nevermore:
All good things vanish less than in a day,
Peace, plenty, pleasure, suddenly decay.
Go not yet away, bright soul of the sad year,
The earth is hell when thou leav'st to appear.

Thursday 21 June 2012

The Bard - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

O, GREAT was Denmark’s land in time of old!
  Wide to the south her branch of glory spread;
Fierce to the battle rushed her heroes bold,
  Eager to join the revels of the dead:
While the fond maiden flew with smiles to fold
  Round her returning warrior’s vesture red
Her arm of snow, with nobler passion fired,
When to the breast of love, exhausted, he retired.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Love for love - Robert Burns

Ithers seek they ken na what,
Features, carriage, and a’ that;
Gie me love in her I court,
Love to love maks a’ the sport.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Monday 18 June 2012

Bessie's song to her Doll - Lewis Carroll

Matilda Jane, you never look
At any toy or picture-book.
I show you pretty things in vain—
You must be blind, Matilda Jane!

Sunday 17 June 2012

Redemption - George Herbert

Having been tenant long to a rich lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old.

Saturday 16 June 2012

The call of the Seven Seas - Kendall Banning

I hear the call of the wanderlust,
And God knows why but go I must;
Until my bones are drifting dust
   I'll follow the sea-gull's cry.
The bow-watch song to the dog-watch bell,
The kick o' the wheel and the chantey's spell
Get hold of a man in spite o' Hell,
   And a better man than I!

Friday 15 June 2012

Anonymous - This was our land

The land that the mountain needed in order
To raise in majesty.

Thursday 14 June 2012

Savitri, or The Sun - Anonymous

1.
Savitri! effulgent, bright!
Who fosters every pious rite,
Savitri! whose ruddy rays
Invite our holy hymns and lays,
With humble hearts we contemplate his rays,
And faintly see our God in his bright face!

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Star Teachers - George William Russell

Even as a bird sprays many-coloured fires,
The plumes of paradise, the dying light
Rays through the fevered air in misty spires
That vanish in the heights.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

OFF 2 Fiji : hot airports - Vinepa Aiono

DEPART
Auckland International Airport
Damn ! its hot!! my salt water skin
eats my eyeliner and rubs my lipstick
in the crowded gate room.

Monday 11 June 2012

Sunday 10 June 2012

The Cross - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Tree which heaven has willed to dower
With that true fruit whence we live,
As that other death did give;

Saturday 9 June 2012

Friday 8 June 2012

The Springlet - José Zorilla

Hasting on, the springlet flows,
Licking up its dark brown bed;
More and more its crystal grows
As its course is sped.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Moon Song - Mildred Plew Meigs

Zoon, zoon, cuddle and croon–
  Over the crinkling sea,
The moon man flings him a silvered net
  Fashioned of moonbeams three.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

My Native Land - Dashdorjiin Natsagdorj

The fertile virgin-lands between Altai and Khangai
Lands of our eternal destiny where ancestors lie
Land grown mellow under the golden rays of the sun
Land grown eternal under the silver moon.

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Anonymous - O Lord Remember


O Lord,
Remember not only the men and women of good will,
but also those of ill will.

Monday 4 June 2012

Birches - Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Confession - Frantisek Halas

Touched by all that love is
I draw closer toward you
Saddened by all that love is
I run from you

Saturday 2 June 2012

The Heart and Service - Sir Thomas Wyatt

The heart and service to you proffer'd
With right good will full honestly,
Refuse it not, since it is offer'd,
But take it to you gentlely.

Friday 1 June 2012

Ladies, who of my lord would fain be told - Gaspara Stampa

Ladies, who of my lord would fain be told,
Picture a gentle knight, full sweet to see,
Though young in years, in wisdom passing old,
Model of glory and of valiancy;