Venice masks

Tuesday 30 June 2020

Love and Lapo - Guido Cavalcanti

If you, my Dante (this I pray
  You much), see Love with Lapo near,
  Take heed, and then if Love you hear

Monday 29 June 2020

Virgil - Giosuè Carducci

As when above parched fields the compassionate
Moon suspended, floods the summer dew with light,
Murmurs the flowing stream, the ripples scintillate,
Reflecting as they run the radiance white.

Sunday 28 June 2020

The Joys of Heaven - Thomas à Kempis

What gladsome voices rise
Through the country of the skies,
Where the Christ, with joyful face,
Smiles with Mary full of grace.

Thursday 25 June 2020

Refugees - Brian Bilston

They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me

Tuesday 23 June 2020

Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y.S.) - James Baldwin

In a strange house,
a strange bed
in a strange town,
a very strange me
is waiting for you.

Monday 22 June 2020

In Search of Five Weapons - Ajt-Man

Who hasn’t been tormented by dreams?
Listen, Steppe, listen, Woods.
I’ve lost my whip made of the skin
of a camel’s neck.

Sunday 21 June 2020

Adorable Things - Sei Shōnagon

The face of a child drawn on a melon.

A baby of two or so is crawling, rapidly along the ground. With his sharp eyes he catches sight of a tiny object and, picking it up with his pretty little fingers, takes it to show to a grown-up person.

Friday 19 June 2020

I Want No Weeping at My Grave - Stanisław Wyspiański

1st
I want no weeping at my grave,
except my wife’s lamenting brief;
I need no tears of yours and save,
oh save yourselves the bogus grief.

Thursday 18 June 2020

To Live in the Borderlands - Gloria Anzaldúa

To live in the borderlands means you
are neither hispana india negra espanola
ni gabacha, eres mestiza, mulata, half-breed
caught in the crossfire between camps
while carrying all five races on your back
not knowing which side to turn to, run from;

Wednesday 17 June 2020

Tuesday 16 June 2020

Plain Song - Pietro Aretino

I am a glutton for the thing called love,
A bigger glutton than the ones who sit
All day at table, as the full hours flit,
And hold they’re happier than the gods above.

Monday 15 June 2020

A Sea Spell - Orla Fay

On the journey to the coast we cut through
the hillsides, tunnels locked us in darkness
while the crescent of the bay grew and grew
as the train escaped its urban harness.

Sunday 14 June 2020

Spread, o spread, thou mighty word - J. F. Bahnmaier

Spread, o spread, thou mighty word.
Spread the kingdom of the Lord;
Wheresoe'er His breath h.as given
Life to beings meant for heaven.

Saturday 13 June 2020

Thursday 11 June 2020

My Heart's Song - Aleksis Kivi

Absalon, my son, that I could have died for you, my son.
Life holds no pleasure, let me descent to hell, weeping

Wednesday 10 June 2020

Tenancingo Shawl - Juan José Acevedo Vázquez

Take a shawl, good lady,
tie the fringes neat.
or, if you prefer it,
take a shawl complete.

Tuesday 9 June 2020

Postcards from God 1 - Imtiaz Dharker

Yes, I do feel like a visitor,
a tourist in this world
that I once made.

Monday 8 June 2020

Consolation: Roses - Gennady Aygi

in your presence even the toes
are as if they remembered!

Sunday 7 June 2020

Trinity Sunday - Malcolm Guite

In the Beginning, not in time or space,
But in the quick before both space and time,

Saturday 6 June 2020

If it Wasn't for the Footprints - Zelda Quakawoot

If it wasn't for the footprints
we wouldn't know about 'before'
Australia's history we have today
would not make sense anymore.

Friday 5 June 2020

Thursday 4 June 2020

View from Afar - Shakila Azizzada

I’m left again with no one standing behind me,
ground pulled from under my feet.
Even the sun’s shoulders are beyond my reach.

Wednesday 3 June 2020

Song of a Dweller in a High-Rise Block - Gülten Akın

They piled the houses high,
in front long balconies.
Far below was water
far below were trees

Tuesday 2 June 2020

On Climbing Mount Song Near the Southern Capital - Xuanzang

A lonely peak
Tapers its way
To a summit
Cut off in the clouds
Thousands of feet above

Monday 1 June 2020

Island on the earth - Sara de Ibáñez

In the north the cold and its broken jasmine.
In the east a nightingale full of thorns.
In the south the rose in its airy mines,
and in the west a road deep in thought.