Venice masks

Thursday 29 December 2016

A Recovered Memory of Water - Núala Ní Dhomhnaill

Sometimes when the mermaid’s daughter
is in the bathroom
cleaning her teeth with a thick brush
and baking soda
she has the sense the room is filling
with water.

Tuesday 27 December 2016

The Fetch - Ciarán Carson

I woke. You were lying beside me in the double bed,
prone, your long dark hair fanned out over the downy pillow.

Saturday 24 December 2016

The heavens beaming with light - Joao Jose Nunes

The heavens beaming with light,
The earth quivering with flowers,
They sing, they greet with exquisite ardor
The birth of the Redeemer.

Friday 23 December 2016

Thursday 22 December 2016

The tree beneath the earth - Karin Boye

There grows a tree beneath the earth;
a mirage pursues me,
a song of living glass, of burning silver.
Like darkness before light
must all weight melt,
where only one drop falls of the song from the leaves.

Wednesday 21 December 2016

A cooking egg - T. S. Eliot

Pipit sate upright in her chair
Some distance from where I was sitting;
Views of the Oxford Colleges
Lay on the table, with the knitting.

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Fertile land - Jorge Barbosa

Of banana trees, orange trees
Cashew-trees
Coffee-trees, grapes, potato plantations;

Monday 19 December 2016

Cry of the African Child - Amie Sallah

It is my father's land
It is my mother's land
It is my home land
They call it the dark continent
We call it Africa
But I call it My Continent

Sunday 18 December 2016

Te Deum Laudamus - St Nicetas of Remisiana

We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.

Saturday 17 December 2016

My Wound made Ablution of Gaza's Blood - Najat Zbair

The universe is empty dragging its carnage
Darkness occupies the bewilderment of things

Friday 16 December 2016

Ol' Higue - Wordsworth McAndrew

Ol' woman wid de wrinkled skin,
Leh de ol' higue1 wuk begin.
Put on you fiery disguise,
Ol' woman wid de weary eyes
Shed you swizzly skin.

Thursday 15 December 2016

Missing - Lee Jang-wook

I was gradually delivered to you.
I was born outside of myself.

Wednesday 14 December 2016

Hazards Related to the Setting up of a Christmas Tree - Yong Shu Hoong

Today, I receive a circular with this warning:
As we celebrate the festive season, it is important
to be aware of the possible hazards…

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Drown - DK Osei-Yaw

I stand my ground
Yet it slips away;
My legs kick hard,
Yet bubbles betray;

Monday 12 December 2016

Urgent - Roberto Sosa

This afternoon a child, not even two years old,
got lost.
He’s got curls like ripples on a lake.
A pudgy little boy
with huge eyes
like a stray lamb.

Sunday 11 December 2016

None like you was ever seen or created - Imam Ahmad Raza

None like you was ever seen or created.
Authority stands in your person consummated.

Saturday 10 December 2016

OK, let’s be exiled! - Alemayehu Gebrehiwot

Yes, let’s be exiled,
far from our families,
our beloved country,
our villages, our rivers.

Friday 9 December 2016

I got accustomed to being tired - Maia Sarishvili

I got accustomed to being tired.
It’s like having a live wolf on my back
And feeling him there like a simple schoolbag.

Thursday 8 December 2016

Andha Lamaya - Sagara Palansuriya

They say, flowers are gorgeous and are of lovely shades
The things they speak of as they can see
I don’t understand, mother, so here I am to learn
Please explain to me, I don’t know these

Wednesday 7 December 2016

The Investigation - Din Mehmeti

In an ugly investigation
Our names were unveiled, pierced
By seven rusty nails.

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Lunar Park - Jean Delville

Becalmed the profane noise of the crowd.
Toward the risen Moon, the symbolic Bronzes
Curve, in the blue night, their antique nudity
In the sphinx-like majesty of attitudes.

Monday 5 December 2016

The sound of a silver bridle - Begziin Yavuuhulan

I’m waiting for my lover to arrive,
the sound of horses’ hooves pressed upon my heart.

Sunday 4 December 2016

Incarnate God, thou word divine - St Anselm

Incarnate God, thou word divine,
Both man art thou and God complete;
When as the Judge thou com'st, incline
To me, a man, thy mercy sweet.

Saturday 3 December 2016

Mother - Hadraawi

The world certainly
Would never have left night
Light not been found

Friday 2 December 2016

Silent trees - Bo Carpelan

Will an unknown hand raise the continents
and the song transfix the bird,

Thursday 1 December 2016

For a mythology of minor things - Humberto Quino

Like one who wrinkles an old shirt
&
Goes about naked in the old cinemas

Wednesday 30 November 2016

The Mother o' Shaun - Cathal O’Byrne

Shaun stood six feet or so, with his head
            up near the rafter,
He be to stoop when he came in the door,

Tuesday 29 November 2016

What Polly found in her stocking - Louisa May Alcott

With the first pale glimmer,
Of the morning red,
Polly woke delighted
And flew out of bed.

Monday 28 November 2016

I. K. - Peter Bruveris

And days lived out are our clay,
and sleepless nights – our salt; to the window
where cloud shadow just crossed, bends
a branch of lilac that bloomed this morning, like a joke

Sunday 27 November 2016

Right now, right now I would like to change - Hasso Krull

Right now, right now I would like to change
into something different. Can I? I don’t know. I
listen to the angry blizzard, a train rattles the things
on the table, then is gone. Did I change

Saturday 26 November 2016

Still Born - Enoch Timpunza Mvula

She did not come just one night:
She did not come just one month.

Friday 25 November 2016

A Day - Alaíde Foppa

This cloudy sky
with its hidden storm
and foreshadowed rain
is weighing on me;

Thursday 24 November 2016

The crocodile - Shika Kgomedi Lekgothoane

The crocodile is the invoker of the rain waters,
The black one of the pool,
The black black one lying on the water slime;

Wednesday 23 November 2016

The Weeping Lady of Kinshasa - Don Too Heng Onn

Have You By Chance Spied From Far
The Weeping Lady of Kinshasa
Each Time I Pass Her By
The Inside of Me Cry

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Believe It or Not - Reesom Haile

Remember the Italians
Who invaded and said
Eat but don't speak?

Monday 21 November 2016

Bermudas - Kamau Brathwaite

First the dark meer
begins to breathe gently into green
into light & light green
until there are like blue

Sunday 20 November 2016

Heu! quid jaces stabulo - John Mauburne

Ah! how humble is thy birth
    In the lowly manger,
Thou the Lord of heaven and earth,
    Weeping as a stranger;
If a King indeed art thou,
Where is all thy glory now?
    Where thy halls of splendour?
Here is nought but poverty,
Barren need and penury,
    Little child so tender.

Saturday 19 November 2016

You Leave with Something of Mine - Medardo Ángel Silva

You leave with something of mine the afternoons you go away…
The pain of loving is the pain of living
and the drizzle in an ancient passageway
invades me with the infinite desire to sob.

Thursday 17 November 2016

The Children - Qassim Haddad

Those many children
who frolic around you
Have you chosen names for them
or will you leave the naming to the gardens?

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Tragedy - Recaredo Silebo Boturu

The Okume’s leaves
began to fall
little by little
&,
the wind appeared
to take them like ashes
to the cosmos,
on that night.

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Kassaman (We Pledge) - Moufdi Zakaria

We swear by the lightning that destroys,
By the streams of generous blood being shed,
By the bright flags that wave,
Flying proudly on the high mountains,
That we have risen up, and whether we live or die,
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness—be our witness—be our witness!

Monday 14 November 2016

Green Spirit - Eunice Ngongkum

Foremost flame of our unique earth
tree hugger Wangari Maathai
now gone one to be with the earth

Sunday 13 November 2016

Art Thou Weary? - St. Stephen the Sabaite

Art thou weary, art thou languid,
  Art thou sore distrest?
“Come to Me,” saith One, “and coming
        Be at rest!”

Saturday 12 November 2016

You Have Closed Your Eyes - Giuseppe Ungaretti

A night is born
full of false holes
dead sounds
like the corks
of nets trailed in the water.

Friday 11 November 2016

The Genius - Leonard Cohen

For you
I will be a ghetto jew
and dance
and put white stockings
on my twisted limbs
and poison wells
across the town

Thursday 10 November 2016

I’ll never lend a book again no matter what - Eustache Deschamps

My books are now lent out in many a place
to people I was sure would have the grace
to give them back, but they’re long overdue.

Wednesday 9 November 2016

On the Pulse of Morning - Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

Tuesday 8 November 2016

The Jester - Margaret Widdemer

I have known great gold Sorrows:
Majestic Griefs shall serve me watchfully
Through the slow-pacing morrows:

Monday 7 November 2016

Dialect of Hurricanes - Frankétienne

          Every day I use the dialect of lunatic hurricanes.
I speak the madness of clashing winds.

Sunday 6 November 2016

Partake - Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin

The hill speaks:

If you are defenceless, come
close to my side and sanctuary;
if you are short of blessings, come
to drink from my wellsprings;
if you are in need of a hiding place, come
under the veil of my mists.

Saturday 5 November 2016

Nothing Exists Per Se Except Atoms and the Void - Lucretius

But, now again to weave the tale begun,
All nature, then, as self-sustained, consists
Of twain of things: of bodies and of void
In which they're set, and where they're moved around.

Friday 4 November 2016

all because i loved you - Olu Oguibe

once i wrote with the irreverence of youth
and the fire of a heart burning to ash
i plucked words like faggots from blazing coal
and on the anvil of exile i hammered sorrow into verse
the burden of your suffering tore poetry from my flesh
and on the night of your hanging there was dust in my lines
i aimed for song and there was not an eye without tears

Thursday 3 November 2016

Prison Art - Marí Peté

Sugarcane hills cradle Eshowe
this warm winter’s afternoon.
I enter into a quiet room,
step closer to counterpoints
caged by frames:

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Hummingbird - Yearn Hong Choi

1
A tiny bird’s long beak is
penetrating into the nectar of an oasis tree’s flower
on the New Mexico desert.

Tuesday 1 November 2016

The Boat - Augusta Peaux

With the wing of an eagle, so wide,
the sail of the boat on the stream
strikes to death the sun in the room
and all that remains is a gleam.

Monday 31 October 2016

Sea Breeze - Stéphane Mallarmé

The flesh is sad, alas, and there’s nothing but words!
To take flight, far off! I sense that somewhere the birds
Are drunk to be amid strange spray and skies.

Sunday 30 October 2016

The Day is Past and Over - St. Anatolius

The day is past and over;
  All thanks, O Lord, to Thee;
I pray Thee now that sinless
  The hours of dark may be:
O Jesu, keep me in Thy sight,
And guard me through the coming night.

Saturday 29 October 2016

Mother - Guido Gezelle

No picture now
is left to me.
no portrait here
     below,

Friday 28 October 2016

Song of the Sampo: The Song of Creation - Elias Lönnrot

The Lapp with the crooked back
Fostered an ancient feud,
A spite from long past time
Against old Väinämöinen.

Thursday 27 October 2016

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Child Who Dances For the Wedding - Vagif Bayatly Oner

Child, who dances for the wedding of the neighbour
Ten houses away,
Under the leaf of a rose,
In the shape of a rose petal,

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Murder of an African nation - Annie Moyo

You are a third world capitalist leader;
With a thousand words spoken yet not one with meaning,

Monday 24 October 2016

Dedication - Wole Soyinka

Earth will not share the rafter's envy; dung floors
Break, not the gecko's slight skin, but its fall
Taste this soil for death and plumb her deep for life

Sunday 23 October 2016

Prayer of Eugenius

Monarch of infinite majesty, Maker and Lord of creation,
Feeble and vile at thy feet I dare to implore thee for favours; —

Saturday 22 October 2016

from Alasdair of Glengarry - Sìleas na Ceapaich

You were the yew above every forest,
You were the strong steadfast oak,

Friday 21 October 2016

The Swan - Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin

I'll leave the mortal world behind,
Take wing in an flight fantastical,
With singing, my eternal soul
Will rise up swan-like in the air.

Thursday 20 October 2016

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Lullaby of the Onion - Miguel Hernández

The onion is frost
shut in and poor.
Frost of your days
and of my nights.
Hunger and onion,
black ice and frost
large and round.

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Exhortation to Battle - Callinus

How long will ye slumber? when will ye take heart
And fear the reproach of your neighbours at hand?

Monday 17 October 2016

The Sea-Migrations - Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf

Declaiming this poem, a gabay1, I alliterate in D to start debate,
to disseminate, to disclose to you: the public.
Hey, you - be diligent! I'm trying though it's difficult
to destroy the injustice, demolish the status quo.
Sea-migration disables my people, I want to drive it back.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 122-172) - Joost van den Vondel

Apollion:
No creature hath on high mine eye so pleased
As those below. Who could so subtly soul
With body weave and two-fold Angels form
From clay and bone? The body's shapely mould
Attests the Maker's art, that in the face,
The mirror of the mind, doth best appear.

Saturday 15 October 2016

My sweet youthfulness is gone - Pierre de Ronsard

My sweet youthfulness is gone,
my early strength is broken;
I have black teeth and white hair;

Friday 14 October 2016

A stir for Seacole - Anonymous

Dame Seacole was a kindly old soul,
And a kindly old soul was she;
You might call for your pot, you might call for your pipe,
In her tent on "the Col" so free.

Thursday 13 October 2016

Wednesday 12 October 2016

An Old Woman of the Roads - Padraic Colum

O, to have a little house!
    To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods upon the fire,
    The pile of turf against the wall!

Tuesday 11 October 2016

The Winter Galaxy - Charles Heavysege

The stars are glittering in the frosty sky,
Numerous as pebbles on a broad sea-coast;

Monday 10 October 2016

Her Granddaughter Learns the Alphabet - Olive Senior

I myself had learnt the alphabet, once, long ago,
in a place that was small and known.
But my forgetfulness has grown.

Saturday 8 October 2016

No Traces Left - Rajathi Salma

There are objects
everywhere in this room.

Vases await
the visitor’s gaze.

Friday 7 October 2016

Praise of Peace - Bacchylides

To mortal men Peace giveth these good things:
Wealth, and the flowers of honey-throated song;
      The flame that springs
On carven altars from fat sheep and kine,

Thursday 6 October 2016

Oh pearl of the nose-ring - Bihari Lal

Oh pearl of the nose-ring, thrice blessed are you;
there is no limit to your good fortune!

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Corinna in Vendome - Pierre de Ronsard

Darling, each morning a blooded rose
Lures the sunlight in, and shows
Her soft, moist and secret part.
See now, before you go to bed,
Her skirts replaced, her deeper red —
A colour much like yours, dear heart.

Tuesday 4 October 2016

The Shark - E.J. Pratt

He seemed to know the harbour,
So leisurely he swam;
His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,
And with knife-edge,
Stirred not a bubble
As it moved
With its base-line on the water.

Monday 3 October 2016

We did it - Yehuda Amichai

We did it before the mirror
And in the light. We did it in darkness,
In the water, and in the high grass.

Sunday 2 October 2016

I have in heaven a friend - Nils Frykman

I have in heaven, a Friend so good,
He has redeemed me, with His own blood,
From Satan, and this world of sin;
He always hears when I make request,
A crown He's promised, the very best,
Which I may wear there, with joy and zest,
When I eternal life shall win.

Saturday 1 October 2016

Legs on the Signpost - Tomaž Šalamun

The insane devotee throbs with his
small legs, I don’t dare more.

Friday 30 September 2016

As if you'd remember - Raúl Gómez Jattin

As if you'd remember Isabel
of the hopscotch underneath your patio’s mamoncillo tree
of the rag dolls that were our children

Thursday 29 September 2016

Not loved enough - Suniti Namjoshi

Not loved enough, nor yet quite lost,
No longer fought for, nor yet forgot,

Wednesday 28 September 2016

What The Old Man Said - Cicely Fox Smith

"Don't you take no sail off 'er,"
The Ol' Man said,
Wind an' sea rampagin'
Fit to wake the dead, —

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Evening Cloud - Gaarriye

Setting sun you're slipping
From the fading day
Heading for your hole
Hey! Are you a coward?

Monday 26 September 2016

Elene: Part I - Cynewulf

Swift in the tale of time had fleeted
      Hundreds two and thirty-three
Winters for the world completed,
      Since heaven’s Lord in low degree
In this mid-earth a man was born
To shed o’er faithful hearts a heavenly morn.

Sunday 25 September 2016

Dust we are return to it we must - Imam Ahmad Raza

Dust we are return to it we must
Adam, our ancestor, was created from dust

Saturday 24 September 2016

Sonnet - Willem Kloos

I always think of you as of a dream
In which, all through the long blest night, a face
I never saw smiles at me with a grace
No words can paint, till at the first shy gleam

Friday 23 September 2016

The Origin of Trade - Voltaire

When with a skillful hand Prometheus made
A statue that the human form displayed,

Pandora, his own work, to wed he chose,
And from those two the human race arose.

Thursday 22 September 2016

The Boat That Brought Me - Azita Ghahreman

Behind these eyes that look like mine
old names are fading away, the past lies crumpled in my clenched fist -
a coppery bird in coppery wind,
this vast place has covered me from head to toe.

Wednesday 21 September 2016

he locks the car and knows... Kees Ouwens

I haven’t yet been allotted to death
the horizon still keeps its distance
across the triple verge – the middle,
the edges – the ripe light
strokes down, the open pulse

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Grass is growing in the east - Tsogdorjin Bavuudorj

Grass, growing in the east
in yellow waves, and
kneeling and bowing

Monday 19 September 2016

Trieste - Umberto Saba

I traversed the whole city.
Then climbed a hill
crowded at first, in the end deserted,

Sunday 18 September 2016

Consecration - Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh

How great the tale, that there should be,
In God's Son's heart, a place for me!

Saturday 17 September 2016

Song of the Forest Trees - Standish Hayes O'Grady

O man that for Fergus of the feasts dost kindle fire,
Whether afloat or ashore burn not the king of woods.

Friday 16 September 2016

"Fire" Second State : Voice of Agony - Rogelio Sinán

- Give me your breeze, oh sea, your pure breeze to appease my voice and my inner core!
- Give me Lord your grace and your lungs to hold fast their air with my veins!

Thursday 15 September 2016

Venus' Rose-Garden - Publius Annius Florus

Venus a garden had, rose-bushes round —
Its lady's darling plot; once seen, beloved.

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Away from Ireland - Cathal O’Byrne

Though I’m far and very far away from Ireland,
There’s a. knot. of purple thistles on a cliff above the sea,
Like a silver censer flaming between the sky and me,
The blood-red bells of fuchsias swing around a cabin door,
Where the yellow sunlight showers down to flood the earthen floor,
Far away, and very far away in Ireland.

Tuesday 13 September 2016

The Stamp of Civilization - Max Nordau

Japan hath Western culture? So you say. O vain sophistic thought!

Monday 12 September 2016

Summons to Youth - Rudolph Altrocchi

Exultant youths who would bewail or vaunt
   The odds of love, no longer waste your breath:

Sunday 11 September 2016

Alpha et Omega, Magne Deus - Hildebert of Lavardin

First and last, great God, before thee
Come we humbly to adore thee,
Thou, whose power is all sufficient,
Lord omnipotent, omniscient,

Saturday 10 September 2016

Even now I cannot help thinking of them - George Szirtes

Even now I cannot help thinking of them
as historical. The noise they make drowns
out the radio static of the street. Grey gowns
of rain flutter or run away in a million gem
spectacular but these dark suns expand

Friday 9 September 2016

Thursday 8 September 2016

Green Gully - Wang Wei

If I want to reach Yellow Flower river
I always Follow Green Gully stream;
It coils through the mountains
      with ten thousand turnings,

Wednesday 7 September 2016

Gift - Tamim al-Barghouti

My life is a gift
Given to me
On my zero birthday.
Today I pulled out the ribbon,
Unwrapped the Box
And found lots of things,

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Sleep - Paul Kester

If I pass between thy shadowy portals
Fearlessly;
I go, where, for a little space
No echo of the world's tumult
Shall awake

Monday 5 September 2016

Sunday 4 September 2016

The Community that Lies Between - Andrew King

Somewhere between what is
and what will be,
between this present world
and a world redeemed,

Saturday 3 September 2016

Four times azure and five - Habib Tengour

Sand stone or mineral ultramarine blue
memory attaches to its rays
frail trace of a camp
to cross our lives set out in a mirror
just as hachures fade to grey
and the sky is colour sterile

Friday 2 September 2016

Harbour - Maung Chaw Nwe

They will land here.
A tree or two or three.
A ship or two or three.
Sceneries will land.
Fortuities will land.

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Litanies of the Rose - Remy de Gourmont

Rose with dark eyes,
mirror of your nothingness,
rose with dark eyes,
make us believe in the mystery,
hypocrite flower,
flower of silence.

Tuesday 30 August 2016

In Childhood - Kimiko Hahn

things don't die or remain damaged
but return: stumps grow back hands,
a head reconnects to a neck,
a whole corpse rises blushing and newly elastic.

For Esther - Bruce Levitan

Nothing so special as blood of my blood,
Infinity sleeps in the new born's repose;
Tiny hands clenched, lips like a rosebud,
Perfect in form; and mother's smile glows.

Monday 29 August 2016

I want to say - Daiva Cepauskaite

I want to say — I'm in love
but I feel ashamed
of making such a fool of myself,
so I say — I hate.

Sunday 28 August 2016

Above the world - Magnus Felix Ennodius

Above the world the deepening pall
Of gloomy night begins to fall;
And every heart that languisheth,
May gain new life from seeming death.

Saturday 27 August 2016

The Wayver of Wellbrook - Ben Brierley

Yo gentlemen o with yor heaunds an yor parks,
Yo may gamble an sport till yo dee;
Bo a quiet heause nook, a good wife, an a book,
Is mooar to the likins o mee.

Friday 26 August 2016

Beyond the Sun - Andrey Belyi

The world-gold sunset is ablaze with fire,
Having pierced through with radiant airiness,
above the peaceful cornfield it set fire to crosses
and distant outlines of cupolas.

Thursday 25 August 2016

Wednesday 24 August 2016

To the Muse - Aleksandr Blok

In your hidden memories
There are fatal tidings of doom
A curse on sacred traditions,
A desecration of happiness;

Tuesday 23 August 2016

We Have Astonished - Pierre-Jean Jouve

We have astonished by our great suffering
The inclination of indifferent stars

Monday 22 August 2016

The Wisdom of Dede Korkut - Dede Korkut

Unless one calls on God, no work prospers;
         unless God grants, no man grows rich.

Sunday 21 August 2016

Ascension - Ric Ohge

The elect stand
in the holies,
hidden in the
shrines and temples,
the places of power,
of old names-older ones
still, forgotten in the
dust of those fallen.

Saturday 20 August 2016

Friday 19 August 2016

Before the Convent of Yuste, 1556 - August von Platen-Hallermünde

’Tis night, and storms continually roar,
Ye monks of Spain, unbar for me the door.

Thursday 18 August 2016

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod - Eugene Field

 Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
   Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
   Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
   The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
   That live in this beautiful sea;
   Nets of silver and gold have we,"
            Said Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

Wednesday 17 August 2016

Narcissist Advice Column - Hinemoana Baker

Pepper blacks the pan so never shake it near me.
Wait for the flagrant animation in my bedroom, in my bed base.

Tuesday 16 August 2016

Naming The Dawn - Rafael Alberti

               With gentle red assaults, Dawn, I was granting you names:
Mistaken dream, Angel without exit, Falsehood of rain in the trees.

Monday 15 August 2016

the stone collector’s song - Sjón

i remember the thirst and the darkness
i remember one-way streets
i remember closed alleys
and you

Sunday 14 August 2016

O Splendour of God's Glory Bright - - Ambrose of Milan (Augusta Treverorum)

O splendour of God’s glory bright,
From light eternal bringing light,
Thou Light of light, light’s living Spring,
True Day, all days illumining.

Saturday 13 August 2016

Poems: VIII - Publius Annius Florus

'Tis as bad possessing money as to live in penury;
Just as bad perpetual daring as perpetual modesty;

Friday 12 August 2016

The Lonely Hunter - Fiona MacLeod

Green branches, green branches, I see you beckon; I follow!
Sweet is the place you guard, there in the rowan-tree hollow.

Thursday 11 August 2016

She of the Garden - Emile Verhaeren

In such a spot, with radiant flowers for halo,
I saw the Guardian Angel sit her down;
Vine-branches fashioned a green shrine above her
And sun-flowers rose behind her like a crown.

Wednesday 10 August 2016

Summer Colours - Fenny Sterenborg

Long curls
lightest blond
like silver and gold
in the saffron sun

Tuesday 9 August 2016

Mind Games - Dimitris Varos

I am a waterfall in the desert.
A rain from a cloudless sky.
A well known but unborn child.
An insistence experience
that you never had.

Monday 8 August 2016

The Guardian Angel - Bruna Digregorio

When you have been bathed
in scented water,
when your limbs
have been caressed
by sweet oils

Sunday 7 August 2016

Poverty Poem - Frank Joussen

It looks like the idyll from the Kipling story.
There are the huts, the dusty field paths,
peopled with sari girls
carrying milk, water, firewood,
the cooking women and the chatting men.
And at night the beast roams freely,
restlessly circling the sleeping village.
But the beast is inside, not outside,

Saturday 6 August 2016

Naval Engineering - Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

The wheel's star
                            freshly cut
from night's garden

Thursday 4 August 2016

This Lane - Andrew Young

Years and years and man’s thoughtful foot,
Drip and guttering rains and mute
Shrinkage of snows, and shaggy-hoofed
Horse have sunk this lane tree-roofed
Now patched with blossoming elder,
Wayfaring-tree and guelder;
Lane that eases the sharp-scarped hill
Winding the slope with leisurely will.

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Lyme Regis – Golden Cap - Anne Ridler

The Cobb curves like a fossil, ridged and gray.
That sickle hook, which once held navies in its crook,
Still shields the town, and reaps the golden stalks
That spring in the wave;

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Stories of the Armadillo - Fabio Pusterla

Good morning, says the armadillo to a street sweeper. Did you happen
to see an opossum go by?
The man raises his broom towards the north, where a cloud
hovers over the desert like a great mountain. The armadillo
thanks him and sets off against the wind.

Monday 1 August 2016

To a sea-cliff - Thomas Hardy

Lend me your ear
While I read to you here
A page from your history,
Old cliff — not known
To your solid stone
Yet yours inseparably.

Sunday 31 July 2016

Broken Shell - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Cease searching for the perfect shell, the whole
Inviolate form no tooth of time has cracked;
The alabaster armor still intact
From sand’s erosion and the breaker’s roll.

Saturday 30 July 2016

Mangroves - Kenneth Slessor

These black bush-waters, heavy with crusted boughs
Like plumes above dead captains, wake the mind...

Thursday 28 July 2016

Whited Sepulchre - John Ngong Kum Ngong

I know whited sepulchre
you do not feel anymore
the touch of our done fingers
which for want of acceptance
cling to the wall of furore.
For close to sixty years
now we have lived like internees
working our fingers to the bone
for idiots to reap the harvest.

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Watching the River Flow - Jaime Saenz

When the hour comes I'll speak with you, watching the river flow, at the river's edge.

Sunday 24 July 2016

Saturday 23 July 2016

Teach Me Peace - Nathan

Mother, teach me peace.
Everyone is making war, and we hardly ever see peace.
At school, I learn these things…

Friday 22 July 2016

Mother Africa - Ribka Sibhatu

Cradle of mankind
baobab of the soul,
in your savannahs
and sacred forests
death dances.

Thursday 21 July 2016

The Fence - Lenrie Peters

There where the dim past and future mingle
their nebulous hopes and aspirations
there I lie.

Wednesday 20 July 2016

A left hand made verse 1 - Kato Javakhishvili

As human creatures do not recognize each other
I think: it’s time for us to stand one after another.
And some time ago, - it was when
I was wrapped in your body as in the wool blanket

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Caudal (The Fortune) - Miguel Ángel Asturias

To give is to love,
To give prodigiously:
For every drop of water
To return a torrent.

Monday 18 July 2016

This Is The Dark Time, My Love - Martin Carter

This is the dark time, my love,
All round the land brown beetles crawl about
The shining sun is hidden in the sky

Sunday 17 July 2016

No words - Olufunke Kolapo

Today, I have no words
Qualified enough to describe
The depth of my pain

Saturday 16 July 2016

To the cushag's friend - Cushag

O the cushag flower in a fairy bower
Would shine like a star of gold;
But when it grows in the farmer’s close
‘Tis a shocking weed, we’re told.
Yet common things
May have their wings
To help our souls above;
And wayside weeds,
Like kindly deeds,
Spring from a father’s love.

Friday 15 July 2016

The High Peak - Bruce Levitan

A mown field with black-wrapped bales
Like pieces from a checkers game, thrown by a giant;
A sky of monochromes: chalks and shales
Arching above the High Peak hills, brooding and defiant;

Thursday 14 July 2016

Where am I from? - Fatoumata Diallo

Where am I from?
I come from these people who get up with cows

Wednesday 13 July 2016

Unsung Hero - Mwiza Mnyuma Sambo Mhango

"O God, bless our land of Malawi."
a prayer for a warm-hearted nation,

Tuesday 12 July 2016

For Us, Life - Jang Jin-sung

Every morning
when I wake
I shake my brother
to and fro – his lungs are weak.

Monday 11 July 2016

Sea Grapes - Derek Walcott

That sail which leans on light,
tired of islands,
a schooner beating up the Caribbean

Sunday 10 July 2016

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller - Moncef Ouahibi

In the morning, when water was falling in threads, I was putting my first sentence in order
I would write it and cross it out to write it

Saturday 9 July 2016

A Memory - Yi Chongbo

I'll never forget the boy
who slept here last night.

Friday 8 July 2016

One Day In June - Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh

One day in June
Her shapely hand was raised, and waving still
To those colourful columns filing past

Thursday 7 July 2016

"Fire" First State: Voice of Panic - Rogelio Sinán

Soundless, moanless, wordless sirens
silent song that was heard by death alone
nailed agonies into the night.

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Phobia - Abigail Lim

The tears I shed tonight
Are not ones of sadness
It’s a stunning realisation
Of what I fear most
That one day you’ll betray me

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Slow Dance - Charles Mwewa

Like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle,
Flesh to flesh, skin to skin

Monday 4 July 2016

Night Has Fallen - Raage Ugaas

Night had fallen and behind closed doors everyone was sleeping
Thunder called out with a clamour of rain like shots from a thousand rifles

Sunday 3 July 2016

Veni Creator Spiritus - Charlemagne

Creator Spirit, by whose aid
The world’s foundations first were laid,
Come, visit every pious mind;
Come, pour thy joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free,
And make thy temples worthy thee.

Saturday 2 July 2016

Promenade of Solitary Death - Edouard Glissant

The sad boy has not moved
On a lake of roses, strewn
With pale bodies in the rosebushes
Funereal bay it has remained

Friday 1 July 2016

Namibia - Mvula Ya Nangolo

I’ve returned here for many a reason
I’ll certainly live here for many a season
Like thousands of others I hear its heartbeat
My heart opens up when I am in the mountains
Where I can be alone with my thoughts

Thursday 30 June 2016

What are you doing, soul? - Petrarch

“What are you doing, soul? What do you think?
Will we have peace? A truce? Or always war?”—
"I do not know our future, but I see
our torment doesn't please her lovely eyes.”—

Wednesday 29 June 2016

Point Cristina and Point Fernanda - Marcelo Ensema Nsang

Album of doves
that comes to coo
the sister couple
who sleep in the sea.

Tuesday 28 June 2016

And You Never Forgot - Ali Podrimja

Here and there beyond barred windows
Chasing you people forgot themselves

Monday 27 June 2016

An Elder’s Prayer - Bai T. Moore

Oh great Spirit of the forest,
I have nothing in my hand
But a chicken and some rice

Sunday 26 June 2016

Jesu, Dulcis Memoria - Bernard of Clairvaux

Jesu, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast;
But sweeter far Thy Face to see,
And in Thy Presence rest.

Saturday 25 June 2016

Animal Crackers - Richard de Zoysa

“Draw me a lion.”
So I set my pen
to work. Produce a lazy, kindly beast . . .
Colour it yellow.

Friday 24 June 2016

Skeete's Bay, Barbados - Robert Lee

One always missed the turning, but found, in time
The broken sign that pointed crookedly, loath to
Allow another stranger here. Perhaps this Tom

Thursday 23 June 2016

My Tabriz - Suleyman Rustam

I never get tired of looking at your beauty,
My Tabriz1, my Tabriz, my gorgeous Tabriz!

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Metempsychosis - Juan Ramón Molina

I was a fish in the mirrors of the sonorous ocean wide,
where I beheld the glimmer of gems and metals;
that is the reason why I love the foam, the sourly
rocky shores, the briny gales, and the vivid choral reefs.

Tuesday 21 June 2016

After the Deluge - Ingmāra Balode

the first such spring after the deluge —
i do not see you squint once.

Monday 20 June 2016

Emigrant - Corsino Fortes

Every evening, sunset crooks
             its thumb across the island
And from the sunset to the thumb
             there grows
             a path of dead stone

Sunday 19 June 2016

Saturday 18 June 2016

One eye crystal, one eye flame - Mimi Khalvati

One eye crystal, one eye flame, it arrives
by stealth. Carrying tatters in its jaw,

Friday 17 June 2016

Where have the mushrooms gone? - Timothy Wangusa

My kinsmen, where have the mushrooms gone?
Where have all the mushrooms gone?
That sprouted in homestead and everywhere?

Thursday 16 June 2016

Country Peace - Mahmud Yussop

The rustling leaves
bring that wondrous feeling
the town people miss
called country peace.

Wednesday 15 June 2016

The Guelder-Rose - Lesia Ukrainka

The Cossack is dying, the maiden crying:
"Let me stay beside you, deep in earth I would be lying!"

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Monday 13 June 2016

City in the East - Emma Moughabghab

At the centre, upon the peak of the grey hill,
you hold the beating heart of the gyroscope;
it goes round and round and back again:
surrounded by fleeting shadows of multiple lives,
it melts in the summer heat in an iridescent simulation
of the shimmering lights and whispering voices of the city.

Sunday 12 June 2016

I am legion - Andrew King

I am the lost one trapped in depression;
I am the broken one trapped in my rage;
I am the hurting soul chained to addiction;
I am self-harmer abused at young age –

Saturday 11 June 2016

Clock - Pierre Reverdy

In the warm air of the ceiling the footlights of dreams are illuminated.

Friday 10 June 2016

Second to none - George Cosbuc

Her shoulders with fair braids are graced,
Lithe as the wheat-stem is her waist,
Her sable apron laced with taste —
She's all in all for me.
When she is near, I take alarm;
When she is off, I come to harm;
When others take her by the arm,
Priests pray to set me free!

Thursday 9 June 2016

The First Book of the Æneis (lines 1-18) - Vergil

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc’d by fate,
And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate,
Expell’d and exil’d, left the Trojan shore.

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Bruno Bends, Falls (1) - Raúl Zurita

In front the mountains emerge like a fine gauze
that curves over the shadows. The snow of the
cordillera phosphoresces lightly, like a gauze
that floats. Above, the infinite stars and the black
sky. Words are tenuous, the stars are tenuous.

Tuesday 7 June 2016

A Girl Strike-Leader - Florence Kiper Frank

A white-faced, stubborn little thing
Whose years are not quite twenty years;
Eyes steely now and done with tears,
Mouth scornful of its suffering—

Monday 6 June 2016

Song of the Search - Constance Lindsay Skinner

I descend through the forest alone.
Rose-flushed are the willows, stark and a-quiver,
In the warm sudden grasp of Spring;
Like a woman when her lover has suddenly, swiftly taken her.
I hear the secret rustle of the little leaves,

Sunday 5 June 2016

Morning Hymn - St Hilary

Hymnum Dicat Turba Fralrum

Raise the song, O band of brothers,
Let the holy anthem ring;
Sound the hymn of loud laudation,
Unto Christ, our Lord and King.

Saturday 4 June 2016

The Wives of Weinsberg - Gottfried Augüst Bürger

Which way to Weinsberg? neighbour, say!
  ’T is sure a famous city:
It must have cradled, in its day,
Full many a maid of noble clay,
  And matrons wise and witty;
And if ever marriage should happen to me,
A Weinsberg dame my wife shall be.

Friday 3 June 2016

The London Convict Maid - Anonymous

Ye London maids attend to me,
While I relate my misery,
Through London streets I oft have stray'd,
But now I am a Convict Maid.

Thursday 2 June 2016

Poor Will’s in Ruthin Gaol - I.D. Hooson

Poor Will’s in Ruthin Gaol,
Dejected and depressed,
His net and gun are lying
Redundant in a chest;

Monday 30 May 2016

The Fox And The Grapes - Jean de La Fontaine

Rosy and ripe, and ready to box,
The grapes hang high o'er the hungry Fox.—
He pricks up his ears, and his eye he cocks.

Sunday 29 May 2016

First they came - Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Saturday 28 May 2016

City That Does Not Sleep - Federico Garcia Lorca

In the sky there is nobody asleep.  Nobody, nobody.
Nobody is asleep.
The creatures of the moon sniff and prowl about their cabins.
The living iguanas will come and bite the men who do not dream,
and the man who rushes out with his spirit broken will meet on the street corner
the unbelievable alligator quiet beneath the tender protest of the stars.

Friday 27 May 2016

Song in the Chalcan Style - Tetlepanquetzanitzin

Lord of the Waters, god and friend,
I weep with anguish at your side.

Thursday 26 May 2016

Other men ride high on horses - Wang Fanzhi

Other men ride high on horses,
A donkey I straddle, poor, poor me.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

the sleepers wake inside the dream - Galina Rymbu

the sleepers wake inside the dream, the awakened
doze on iron fainting couches, in the burrows of moles.
the politics of absence plays cards with itself.
inside every sign is a hallway, straight, down which
you walk alone.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

The Nine Muses - Publius Annius Florus

Clio records past ages in her prose.
Euterpe's hollow reed makes double sound.

Monday 23 May 2016

African tears - Nametso Dorothy Phonchi

African tears are beautiful,
We were born crying before we knew time,
Our tears are beautiful like sun rays
like the moon and the stars,

Sunday 22 May 2016

To God - Gregory Nanzianzen

O Thou, the One supreme o’er all!
  For by what other name
May we upon thy greatness call,
  Or celebrate thy fame?

Saturday 21 May 2016

The Boar Hunt (The Hunter and the Hero - Book X) - Bhāravi

The Boar with wondrous strength endowed
     In its deep tusks and mighty jaw, —
As if to tear the firm set rocks, —
     With glaring eyes great Arjun saw!

Friday 20 May 2016

Pompholyx - Seyi Adigun

If I were not your sister
I would curse you.
If I were not your brethren’s friend
I would cast upon you
a spell.

Thursday 19 May 2016

In a Herber Green Asleep Whereas I Lay - Robert Wever

In a herber green asleep whereas I lay,
The birds sang sweet in the midds of the day;
I dreamed fast of mirth and play:
    In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.

Wednesday 18 May 2016

The yellow bittern - Thomas MacDonagh

The yellow bittern that never broke out
In a drinking-bout, might well have drunk;
His bones are thrown on a naked stone
Where he lived alone like a hermit monk.

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Monday 16 May 2016

A Sketch For A Modern Love Poem - Tadeusz Różewicz

And yet whiteness
can be best described by greyness
a bird by a stone
sunflowers
in december

Sunday 15 May 2016

To the women at the grave - Peter Damian

To the women at the grave,
Tidings sweet the angel gave,
"Christ is risen; haste away,

Saturday 14 May 2016

A Face To Face Encounter With A Lion - Al-Mutanabbi

Behold a rosy lion! when seeking out a lake to drink
His roar resounds as far as the Euphrates and the Nile River
Heavily stained with the blood of his quarries
Attired in the thick hair of his luxurious mane
He seems surrounded by a dense forest

Friday 13 May 2016

My poet friends - Rafael Felipe Oteriño

My poet friends are like children in an airport:
they run from one counter to another asking for information
they immediately forget,

Thursday 12 May 2016

The King of Noon and the Lord of Bells - Carl Spitteler

The forest opens wide its spacious leafy gate
And through, on puissant steed, the Noon King rides in state.
At the brave sight the sun slackens his proud career,
The mountains stretch their necks, the massy clouds uprear,
Waving their streaming flags athwart the azure dome.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Nature’s Nature - Paramahansa Yogananda

Away, ye muses, all away!
Away with songs of finch and fay.
Away the jaundiced sight
That magnifies the firefly’s light
To bonfire bright;

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Upon Green Hills - Sergei Yesenin

Upon green hills wild droves of horses blow
The golden bloom off of the days that go.

Monday 9 May 2016

Water Song - Solomon Ibn Gabirol

The feats's begun
And the Wine is done,
So my sad tears run
    Like streams of water, streams of water.

Sunday 8 May 2016

Requests - Digby Mackworth-Dolben

I asked for Peace,—
My sins arose
And bound me close,
I could not find release.

Friday 6 May 2016

Twenty Gallons of Sleep - Agnes L. Storrie

Measure me out from the fathomless tun
  That somewhere or other you keep
In your vasty cellars, O wealthy one,
  Twenty gallons of sleep.

Thursday 5 May 2016

To Dante - Guido Cavalcanti

Returning from its daily quest, my Spirit
  Changed thoughts and vile in thee doth weep to find:

Wednesday 4 May 2016

Seivin Verses for GMB - William Hershaw

They are fermin the fower winds:
Five grey- stemmed daffodils
on the hill abuin Eynhallow
that whirlmagig air intil pouer.

Tuesday 3 May 2016

The battle between Earl Rognvald and Earl Thorfinn - Arnórr Jarlaskáld

I saw both my goldbestowers,
Each the other s henchmen hewing,
On the fitful firth of Pentland;

Monday 2 May 2016

Hamnavoe Market - George Mackay Brown

They drove to the Market with ringing pockets.

Folster found a girl
Who put wounds on his face and throat,
Small and diagonal, like red doves.

Friday 22 April 2016

Orkney / This Life - Andrew Greig

It is big sky and its changes,
the sea all round and the waters within.
It is the way sea and sky
work off each other constantly,
like people meeting in Alfred Street,
each face coming away with a hint
of the other's face pressed in it.
It is the way a week-long gale
ends and folk emerge to hear
a single bird cry way high up.

Thursday 21 April 2016

As toward the Ascrean Mount - Giambattista Felice Zappi

As toward the Ascrean mount I take my way
  Attending Glory at my right I hail;—

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Roses in Springtime - Publius Annius Florus

Roses are here at last: thanks to the mood
Of lovely Spring, one day shows barbs of bloom;

Tuesday 19 April 2016

The Seeking of Self - Vyacheslav Ivanov

Dying, the seed will discover the self it finds in the losing.

Monday 18 April 2016

White Paper - Sydney Jephcott

Snowy-smooth beneath the pen—
  Richest field that iron ploughs,
Germinating thoughts of men,
  Tho’ no heaven its rain allows.

Sunday 17 April 2016

Saturday 16 April 2016

Words - Charles Harpur

Words are deeds. The words we hear
May revolutionize or rear
A mighty state. The words we read
May be a spiritual deed

Friday 15 April 2016

Cuttin’ Rushes - Moira O’Neill

Oh, maybe it was yesterday, or fifty years ago!
  Meself was risin’ early on a day for cuttin’ rushes.

Thursday 14 April 2016

Had I a Golden Pound - Francis Ledwidge

Had I a golden pound to spend,
My love should mend and sew no more.
And I would buy her a little quern,
Easy to turn on the kitchen floor.

Wednesday 13 April 2016

I Will Not Have You Think Me Less - Santob de Carrion

I Will not have you think me less
  Than others of my faith,
Who live on a generous king’s largess,
  Forsworn at every breath.

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Postscript - Anne M’Vicar Grant

Jean, fetch that heap of tangled yarn,
And bring those stockings here to darn,
And get from Anne the dairy keys,
That I may go and count my cheese;

Monday 11 April 2016

Ca’ the Yowes - Isobel Pagan

Ca’ the yowes to the knowes,
Ca’ them whare the heather grows,
Ca’ them whare the burnie rows,
    My bonnie dearie.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Mountain and Valley - Friedrich Adolf Krummacher

On Alpine heights the love of God is shed;
    He paints the morning red,
    The flowerets white and blue,
    And feeds them with his dew.
On Alpine heights a loving Father dwells.

Saturday 9 April 2016

The Yokel and the Light-o’-Love - Theocritus

When I would kiss Eunice, loud laughed she,
And taunting cried: ‘Thou boor, begone from me!
Would’st kiss me, wretch?—I cannot kiss a clown—
No lips press I but such as hail from town.

Thursday 7 April 2016

The Ballad of Guibour - Frédéric Mistral

At Arles in the Carlovingian days,
        By the swift Rhone water,
A hundred thousand on either side,
Christian and Saracen, fought till the tide
        Ran red with the slaughter.

Wednesday 6 April 2016

Why Sighest Thou? - Cino da Pistoia

“Why sighest thou?” Ah! ask not why;
  But late the tidings I have known,
  And all my wishes shattered lie:

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Monday 4 April 2016

Wounded of Love - Bonaggiunta Urbisani

Wounded, I pray my wounder to beware
  Lest me, by plucking out her barb, she slay;
For many dying I have seen, that were
  Not killed by wound, but weapon drawn away.

Sunday 3 April 2016

The Hen - Matthias Claudius

A famous hen ’s my story’s theme,
  Which ne’er was known to tire
Of laying eggs, but then she ’d scream
So loud o’er every egg, ’t would seem
  The house must be on fire.

Friday 1 April 2016

The Mountain Boy - Johann Ludwig Uhland

The shepherd of the Alps am I,
The castles far beneath me lie;
Here first the ruddy sunlight gleams,
Here linger last the parting beams.
      The mountain boy am I!

Thursday 31 March 2016

The Lives of Poets - José Emilio Pacheco

In poetry there’s no happy ending.
Poets end up
living their madness.

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Tuesday 29 March 2016

A Day In The Life Of A Little Angel - Emad Fouad

The angel wakes up
every morning
like an ordinary soldier
He gets trained in good deeds
and guiding lost souls

Monday 28 March 2016

“Look,” mother says - Anna Kamienska

“Look,” mother says in my dream,
“Look, a bird soars up to the clouds.

Sunday 27 March 2016

Hail the Resurrection day - John of Da­mas­cus (John Mansur)

Hail the Resurrection day,
Let the people shout for gladness;
'Tis a Passover of joy,
Therefore banish every sadness;
For, from death to endless life,
Christ our Lord His people bringeth;
As from earth to heaven we rise,
Each his song of triumph singeth.

Saturday 26 March 2016

Triumph of Lofty Madness - Josep Palau i Fabre

I climb on top of myself
and look:
and see myself as more transparent.

Thursday 24 March 2016

Earth The Healer, Earth The Keeper - William Morris

So swift the hours are moving
Unto the time unproved:
Farewell my love unloving,
Farewell my love beloved!

Wednesday 23 March 2016

The Bride of a Year - Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

She stands in front of her mirror
    With bright and joyous air,
Smoothes out with a skilful hand
    Her waves of golden hair;
But the tell-tale roses on her cheek,
    So changing yet so bright,
And downcast, earnest eye betray
    New thoughts are hers to-night.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

The Cow - Bernard Patrick O'Dowd

This is a rune I ravelled in the still,
Arrogant stare of an Australian cow—

Monday 21 March 2016

Innocence - Patrick Kavanagh

They laughed at one I loved-
The triangular hill that hung
Under the Big Forth. They said
That I was bounded by the whitethorn hedges
Of the little farm and did not know the world.

Sunday 20 March 2016

The Story of Palm Sunday (as told for the young) - Andrew King

Jerusalem’s past had been quite a blast
when David was monarch and splendid.
But centuries had gone since David passed on,
and God’s blessing seemed to have ended.

Saturday 19 March 2016

An old battle-field - Li Hua

Vast, vast—an endless wilderness of sand;
A stream crawls through its tawny banks; the hills
Encompass it; where in the dismal dusk
Moan the last sighs of sunset. Shrubs are gone,
Withered the grass; all chill as the white rime
Of early morn. The birds go soaring past,

Friday 18 March 2016

Aurora’s Lovers - Amadou Lamine Sall

I looked for you everywhere and nowhere
between flower and stem
between day and night
among the laughter of slumber
among the caresses of absence

Thursday 17 March 2016

Irmelin - Jens Peter Jacobsen

There lived a king in days departed,
Many treasures rare he owned,
But far beyond the best of these
He thought his beauteous Irmelin,
Irmelin rose,
Irmelin sun,
Irmelin loveliest of all!

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Remember Freedom’s Fields - Martin Kloess

Remember fields where once we used to play
The freedom of our hopes was by our side
Quite strangely they seem different today

Monday 14 March 2016

Miniature Poetry - Rabbe Enckell

The morning dew has placed small weights
in the dew-cup’s bowl — the scales are even.

Sunday 13 March 2016

Talk To Me - Nnorom Azuonye

Your majesty,
When I consider the endless battle
Of my people for a fair share
Of this star of startling beauty,
I wonder,
What were you thinking
When you made us?

Saturday 12 March 2016

The Otter - Seamus Heaney

When you plunged
The light of Tuscany wavered
And swung through the pool
From top to bottom.

Friday 11 March 2016

The Spanish Needle - Claude McKay

Lovely dainty Spanish needle
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?

Thursday 10 March 2016

The Peasant Declares His Love - Émile Roumer

High-yellow of my heart, with breasts like tangerines,
you taste better to me than eggplant stuffed with crab,

Wednesday 9 March 2016

The Hanging Judge - A G Stephens

I am the Judge, the flower of the law,
Bolstered in, privileged, all men’s awe;
When I am pleased to display my wit
The court is a-cackle with joy of it;
When my liver is slightly out of order
Woe to who crosses me—barrister, warder!

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Cologne - Paul Celan

In Kohln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones

Monday 7 March 2016

How to Die in Zapotec - Dalthon Pineda

I
The white bird traverses the nocturne sky,
a parrot of dark omens,

                        someone predicts your death and leads herself
                        to your house to embalm it with misery.

Sunday 6 March 2016

Dust - Olufunke Kolapo

Clay and water
Sieved and pounded
Moulded and shaped of His hands

Saturday 5 March 2016

You are the seed - Karin Boye

You are the seed and I your soil.
You lie in me and grow.
You are the child expected.
I am your mother now.

Friday 4 March 2016

Spring harbingers - George Cosbuc

From sunny countries and skies of blue
From which last autumn-tide you flew,
Return, dear birds, where you belong,
Most welcome here are you!
The woods, bereft of leaf and song,
Weep for for missingt you so long.

Thursday 3 March 2016

A Spring Song, An Otomi Song, A Plain Song - Nahuatl indian (anonymous)

I, the singer, have entered many flower gardens,
places of pleasance, favoured spots,
where the dew spread out its glittering surface,
where sang various lovely birds,  where the coyol birds[1] let fall their song,
and spreading far around, their voices rejoiced the Cause of All,
He who is God, ohuaya! ohuaya![2]

Wednesday 2 March 2016

The advent of Siva (The Hunter and the Hero - Book IX) - Bhāravi

By Indra's mandate Arjun great
   Once more began his pious rites,
And worship paid to saintly Siva
   Dwelling in far Kailâsa's heights.

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Adolescence - P.K. Page

In love they wore themselves in a green embrace.
A silken rain fell through the spring upon them.
In the park she fed the swans and he
whittled nervously with his strange hands.
And white was mixed with all their colours
as if they drew it from the flowering trees.

Monday 29 February 2016

This Love - Jacques Prévert

This love
So violent
So fragile
So tender
So hopeless

Sunday 28 February 2016

There Is a House in Heaven - Spervogel

There is a house in heaven, they say;
You reach it by a golden way.

Saturday 27 February 2016

New Year's Watch - Su Shi

Soon now, we'll mark the year's end that approaches,
It's like a snake that crawls into a hole.

Friday 26 February 2016

Lullaby - Fenny Sterenborg

Softly lie down
and close your eyes so blue
worry no more
for tonight I'll watch over you

Thursday 25 February 2016

Watermark - Fatima Naoot

They will ring the bells the first of June
Some good reasons for that
The most important one is that
It is the first of June

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Moonshine - Kate Jennings

Yesterday I was sick, sick
in the head,
panic and paranoia,
it's been like that for years, used to say
I was a victim or the victim.

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Inkerman: The Battle Field by Moonlight - Caroline Hayward

Above the vale of Inkerman,
Calmly the moon's rays fell,
Revealing as by light of day,
That deep and lonely dell;
Tchernaya's waters as a band
Of silver graceful flowed,
But who can paint the ghastly scene,
Which those bright rays disclosed!

Monday 22 February 2016

The Fight With The Dragon - Friedrich Von Schiller

Why run the crowd?  What means the throng
That rushes fast the streets along?
Can Rhodes a prey to flames, then, be?
In crowds they gather hastily,
And, on his steed, a noble knight
Amid the rabble, meets my sight;

Sunday 21 February 2016

Love, Love - Pedro Calderón de la Barca

What is the glory far above
All else in human life?
Love! Love!

Saturday 20 February 2016

Mirroring - Alessio Zanelli

We are all the others.

Each of us.

All we are or attain in life
is also due to all the others.

Friday 19 February 2016

Hope - Juan Esteban Yupanqui Villalobos

So I want to see you again
even in my sleep.
You have to know: now again
I grieve for you a lot.

Thursday 18 February 2016

A Day in Bed - Katherine Mansfield

I wish I had not got a cold,
The wind is big and wild,
I wish that I was very old,
Not just a little child.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Odd - Philippe Soupault

A thread tightens
a shadow descends
a butterfly distends

Tuesday 16 February 2016

Forgiveness - George William Russell

At dusk the window panes grew grey;
The wet world vanished in the gloom;
The dim and silver end of day
Scarce glimmered through the little room.

Monday 15 February 2016

Sunday 14 February 2016

My Time Is Brief - Solveig von Schoultz

The holy disquiet knocked at my door.
‘I haven’t the time, I’m baking my bread,
the dough is rising, the oven is red.
Wait, as you’ve had to wait before.’

Saturday 13 February 2016

De Spectaculis.III (What race is set so far) - Marcus Valerius Martialis

What race is set so far,
what race so barbarous, Caesar,
wherefrom a spectator is not in thy city?

Friday 12 February 2016

Border Song IV - Lu Lun

A sumptuous banquet is spread, in the wild, the open air:
Our tribal allies have come, our hard-won victory to share.

Thursday 11 February 2016

Before the sun comes up - Katlego K Kol-Kes

Before the sun comes up:
When the eyes of those
who creep around in day, alight,
yet dance with tender
taps and bats.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Monday 8 February 2016

A Visit to the Clockmaker - Kristin Dimitrova

I crossed the street
to enter a secret shop
where hundreds of hands grind time.

Sunday 7 February 2016

Saturday 6 February 2016

Amnesia - Ilire Zajmi

My memory has been erased
It is not stored either in a hard copy
Nor in a disk a flash or a CD

Friday 5 February 2016

On Prose - Kiwao Nomura

Then I
committed to memory everything
I felt compelled to remember

Thursday 4 February 2016

One life - Inua Ellams

In a farm in Mexico, a grain of corn
is armed with faith. Half covered with soil
it trusts the wind will guide it water, waits
as sunlight plaits itself into photosynthesis,
germinates and listens for the world’s pay.

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Tuesday 2 February 2016

The Grave of Shelley - Oscar Wilde

Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed
    Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun bleached stone;
    Here doth the little night-owl make her throne,

Monday 1 February 2016

February - Margaret Atwood

Winter. Time to eat fat
and watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,
a black fur sausage with yellow
Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries
to get onto my head. It’s his
way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

Sunday 31 January 2016

Saturday 30 January 2016

Beasties - Helen Cruickshank

Clock-leddy, clock-leddy
    Flee awa' hame,
Your lum's in a lowe,
    Your bairns in a flame;

Friday 29 January 2016

Birdish - Astrid Cabral

Among some green or dried out leaves
there sings upon the window sill
a foreign bird.

Thursday 28 January 2016

The Silver Maids - Carl Spitteler

High in their belfry swinging,
The Silver Maids are singing
Their matin-psalm of praise and cheer;
No angel tones diviner,
The farther off, the finer,
Nor even fails one practiced ear.

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Always for the first time - Andre Breton

Always for the first time
Hardly do I know you by sight
You return at some hour of the night to a house at an angle to my window
A wholly imaginary house

Monday 25 January 2016

Gerontophobia - Marilyn Duckworth

I go to bed considering insulin
How much to flood the vein that is me
So that I may turn over in my grave
Composed, dead level?
But wake daily, measuring the panic dream, collecting
My thoughts. Am I still threaded?

Sunday 24 January 2016

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 344-410) - Joost van den Vondel

Chorus of Angels:
Strophe.
Who is it on His Throne, high-seated,
So deep in boundless realms of light,
Whose measure, space nor time hath meted,
Nor e'en eternity; whose might,
Supportless, yet itself maintaineth,
Floating on pinions of repose;

Saturday 23 January 2016

Recreation - Audre Lorde

Coming together
it is easier to work
after our bodies
meet

Friday 22 January 2016

Easy - Sampurna Chattarji

Death is easy to pronounce.
He deserved to die.
They ought to be shot.
Hanging’s too good for him.
The words fall glib.
Throwaway lines
sentencing them to death.

Thursday 21 January 2016

I was standing - Anna Kamienska

I was standing with my sister over the patch of grave
And we were speaking about some very important things.
The boy is doing better at school. The youngest already chatters.
If you aren’t mean to people, they’ll be good to you.

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Clarification to My Poetry-Readers - Nizar Qabbani

And of me say the fools:
I entered the lodges of women
And never left.
And they call for my hanging,
Because about the matters of my beloved
I, poetry, compose.

Tuesday 19 January 2016

A Ballad That We Do Not Perish - Zbigniew Herbert

Those who sailed at dawn
but will never return
left their trace on a wave—

Monday 18 January 2016

Sunday 17 January 2016

Saturday 16 January 2016

Friday 15 January 2016

Thursday 14 January 2016

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Breakfast - Jacques Prévert

He poured the coffee
Into the cup
He put the milk
Into the cup of coffee
He put the sugar
Into the coffee with milk
With a small spoon

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Eight Line Poem - David Bowie

The tactful cactus by your window
Surveys the prairie of your room

Monday 11 January 2016

Song of the Full Catch - Constance Lindsay Skinner

Here's good wind, here's sweet wind,
Here's good wind and my woman calls me!

Sunday 10 January 2016

God Has Pity On Kindergarten Children - Yehuda Amichai

God has pity on kindergarten children,
He pities school children -- less.
But adults he pities not at all.

Saturday 9 January 2016

He Was Called - Giuseppe Ungaretti

He was called
Moammed Sceab
descended
from emirs from nomads

Friday 8 January 2016

The Stars Stand Up In The Air - Thomas MacDonagh

The stars up in the air,
The sun and the moon are gone,
The strand of its waters is bare.
And her sway is swept from the swan.

Thursday 7 January 2016

Hédauville - Roland Leighton

The sunshine on the long white road
That ribboned down the hill,
The velvet clematis that clung
Around your window-sill
Are waiting for you still.

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Poems from The Tale of Genji (chapter 49) - Murasaki Shikibu

"When I went too pluck for our august Sovereign's hair wisteria blossoms,
       ah, how far above my head was the branch that caught my sleeves"

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Book Two Elegy 15 - Sextus Propertius

O happy me! O night of radiance, and you,
   sweet bed that's strewn with such delights!
What declarations when the lamp was lit, what fights
   and tussles when the light was doused!
With breasts undone she teased me as we wrestled: then,
   with clothes drawn up, she feigned delay.
Her breath fell on my eyelids thick with sleep: she hissed,
   'Is this the way you finish, sluggard?'
Such length of arms' embraces as we changed positions,
   kisses lengthening on the lips!

Monday 4 January 2016

When Mother Calls to Dinner - Uloola

We're on a farm not far from town—
There's just a dozen acres;
Our neighbours range from atheists
And infidels to Quakers;
We've got the good old pious sort
‘Long-side the hardened sinner—
But that won't spoil our appetite
When Mother calls to dinner.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Kinder Than Miriam - Kajal Ahmad

Our nation is as lonely
as Father Adam was
before the fertile
arrival of Mother Eve.

Saturday 2 January 2016

The Wind on the Hills - Dora Sigerson Shorter

Go not to the hills of Erinn
When the night winds are about,
Put up your bar and shutter,
And so keep danger out.

Friday 1 January 2016

New Year - Bei Dao

a child carrying flowers walks toward the new year
a conductor tattooing darkness
listens to the shortest pause