Venice masks

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.