Venice masks

Wednesday 31 July 2019

Fog - Louise Otto-Peters

A grey veil has settled all around.
I know not: will the sun break through
Or will this fog completely mask it, today;
And will it rise; and will it fall again?
So might I ask- but the world maintains its silence
And meadow and valley are filled with haze.

Tuesday 30 July 2019

My Nook - Nora May French

Oh, half way up the hill it was, where one might sit leaf-hidden,
  And stare across the canyoned depths to distant miles of blue;
Upon the little path to it no foot might step unbidden.

Monday 29 July 2019

I Hardly Remember - Rafael Guillén

I hardly remember your voice, but the pain of you
floats in some remote current of my blood.
I carry you in my depths, trapped in the sludge
like one of those corpses the sea refuses to give up.

Sunday 28 July 2019

A Letter from the Youth of Britain - Krystina Mawer

Little Britain is severed and splintered,
A country divided in two,

Saturday 27 July 2019

Fake - N. Ullrich Katalin

Fake-flowers in fake-soil,
fake-world with fake-lawn.

Friday 26 July 2019

How Babs Malone Cut Down the Field - Barcroft Boake

                Now the squatters and the “cockies,”
                Shearers, trainers and their jockeys
Had gathered them together for a meeting on the flat;
                They had mustered all their forces,
                Owners brought their fastest horses,
Monaro-bred—I couldn’t give them greater praise than that.

Thursday 25 July 2019

Pinocchio - Leungo Frank

I used to be just like Pinocchio
I wanted to be real
To feel things
Feel joy
Feel pain

Wednesday 24 July 2019

The Land of Exile - Ch`u Yuan

Methinks there's a genius
Roams in the mountains,
Girdled with ivy
And robed in wisteria,

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Pine Tree in Spring (for Leon Damas) - Chinua Achebe

Pine tree
flag bearer
of green memory
across the breach of a desolate hour

Monday 22 July 2019

Heartbeat - Mikayil Mushfig

My heartbeat said:
"There's luck ahead...
Great, glorious days
That brace and daze
Are yet to come!"

Sunday 21 July 2019

Humility - Marguerite Porete

This Humility, who is aunt and mother,
is daughter of Divine majesty and so is born from Divinity.

Friday 19 July 2019

Ecstasy - Gabriela Mistral

Now, O Christ, seal my eyelids,
Let ice on my lips be spread!

Thursday 18 July 2019

Wednesday 17 July 2019

Song of Day in Yosemite Valley - Yone Noguchi

O thunderous opening of the unseen gate of solemn Heaven's Eternal Court!
Behold, clouds, tenants of the sky, sweep down from the Heavens unto a secret palace under the Earth!—

Tuesday 16 July 2019

In Sophie’s Diary - Juliusz Słowacki

For poems, Sophie, ask me not, I pray.
When thou art back in Poland’s merry clime,
A flower will sing a song for thee each day,
A star at night will make for thee a rhyme.

Monday 15 July 2019

Sunday 14 July 2019

The Song of the Wind - Taliesin

Whose idea was the wind?
Created before the deluge,
he is a powerful creature,
sans flesh, sans bone,
sans veins, sans blood,
sans head, and sans feet.

Saturday 13 July 2019

Sonnet XVI. Love and Art - Michelangelo Buonarroti

As pen and ink alike serve him who .sings
      In high or low or intermediate style;
      As the same stone hath shapes both rich and vile
      To match the fancies that each master brings;

Friday 12 July 2019

Lord Tennyson - T. Ramakrishna

A poet of my native land has said -
The life the good and virtuous lead on earth
Is like the black-eyed maiden of the East,

Thursday 11 July 2019

To Be an Infant - Sonja Åkesson

to be carried on the arms of daddies
as conversational bait for strange ladies

Wednesday 10 July 2019

Danish Manor Ghosts - Henrik Nordbrandt

Danish Manor Ghosts
was the title of a book
that my mother said she stopped reading
because it got too Frightening.

Tuesday 9 July 2019

This Evening Also - Paul Celan

More fully,
since snow fell even on this
sun-drifted, sun-drenched sea,

Monday 8 July 2019

Lament II - Jan Kochanowski

If I had ever thought to write in praise
Of little children and their simple ways,
Far rather had I fashioned cradle verse
To rock to slumber, or the songs a nurse
Might croon above the baby on her breast.

Sunday 7 July 2019

I Travelled among Unknown Men - William Wordsworth

I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.