Venice masks

Saturday 31 March 2018

Sonnet to Spring - Charles Tompson

I.
Gay blooming goddess of the flow'ry year,
Enchanting Spring, thou youth of nature, hail!
What artless beauties in thy train appear,
What balmy fragrance swells th' ambrosial gale,

Friday 30 March 2018

The Dog in Kivulu - Ralph Bitamazire

The dog in Kivulu,
Thin, bony and yawning;
The dog in Kivulu,
Panting and squatting
Like its master.

Thursday 29 March 2018

Desolation - Kao-Shih

I
There was a King of Liang—a king of wondrous might—
Who kept an open palace, where music charmed the night—

Wednesday 28 March 2018

You - O'tega Oghenechovwen

'You'
- For a brother, James Ojiyovwi Omotor
On the "Caucasian" of his birthday!

You,
With your stern but comrade eyes
You looked up

Monday 26 March 2018

When we tell - Loa Niumeitolu

I know English was brought
by White people to our country.

Sunday 25 March 2018

Since I met You, I'm not afraid - Frances Angermayer

Look, God, I have never spoken to You,
But now I want to say, "How do you do?"
You see, God, they told me You didn't exist.
And like a fool I believed all this.

Saturday 24 March 2018

The Gazelle Incident - Jack Lahui

Due north-east from here,
in the land of tremors and eruptions,
the police stood like the Spartans,

Friday 23 March 2018

White Shame - Adel Khozam

The sentence was uttered in its entirety
Why did you not believe it
The sentence?

Thursday 22 March 2018

An Alien Land - Muhammad Salih

They invite me to breakfast in another language.
Like a blind man in the streets of the city
They lead me in only three or four words of another language.

Wednesday 21 March 2018

Humankind - Magtymguly Pyragy

Whether asleep or awake, he will always keep in his mind,
Whatever work is chosen by humankind,
The grief of being poor won’t make you depressed,
If a man becomes a beggar wishing to have a wife.

Tuesday 20 March 2018

Monday 19 March 2018

They Came Tonight - Léon Damas

They came the night the
tom
tom
spun from
rhythm
to
rhythm

Sunday 18 March 2018

Day-to-day - Carmen González Huguet

“Yet we want to return to the place we love.
And if God lets us live, we’ll return to eat
corn-on-the-cob fresh from the field,
if we are given the chance…”
Salvadoran refugee, April 1986

And of course,
despite the bloodshed,
life went on
tying its laces.

Saturday 17 March 2018

I've gone - I come - Trefossa

if the dry season wind starts singing
in Mahogany Street:
- Creole, how?
I'll answer:
- here am I
- granny's bench has been set ready
- once upon a time ... once upon a time ...

Thursday 15 March 2018

War, war, war - Patricia Mercy

War, war, war
Who are you and where do you come from?

Tuesday 13 March 2018

To my Mother - Camara Laye

Black woman, African woman, O mother, I think of you …
O Dâman, O mother,
who carried me on your back, who nursed me,

Sunday 11 March 2018

The Faithful Soul - Hildebert of Lavardin

With changeless faith the turtle-dove
To one sole mate gives all her love;
With him alone, in union sweet,
Both night and day her pulses beat.

Saturday 10 March 2018

No, Poetry - Amilcar Cabral

No, Poetry
Do not hide within the inscrutability of my soul

Friday 9 March 2018

Children of the Sun and the Wind - Mohammed Ebnu

We still live
on the brink of nothingness,
between the north and south of the seasons

Thursday 8 March 2018

Gorée Baobab Island - Suzanne Tanella Boni

(1)
perhaps happiness is so far away
invisible among the tamarind leaves
when my hand brushes the fruit
to share them with spirits laughing at man’s
cruelty to man

Wednesday 7 March 2018

Shame and Fear - Ndouna Depenaud

It's raining and it's sunny and the ghosts are
babbling twins behind the trees.
Grandfather, who knows how to make you laugh.
You whose beard blooms with anecdotes.
Tell us a beautiful story, do you want?

Tuesday 6 March 2018

Have you heard it tell? - Fidelia Nimmons

Have you heard it tell that:
His Majesty Oba O’s country
Was abundantly rich in,
All manner of natural resources,
Rubber, cocoa, cotton, palm kernel and more.

Monday 5 March 2018

Hope to the end - Joseph Kokou Koffigoh

I saw everything that day: the lightning in the sky,
Armed by tyrant explosives and lightning;
The bursts of hope struck at the heavy weapon;
The distraught hope calling on the Lord.

Sunday 4 March 2018

How great, how beautiful that Sabbath rest - Peter Abelard

How great, how beautiful that Sabbath rest,
Kept in the court eternal of the blest!
Repose for weary souls! for brave reward!
For there our all in all shall be the Lord.