Venice masks

Thursday 31 December 2020

End of a Year - Julian Symons

And in this year now
Remember all the harm.
The watcher on the hill
Weeps the heroic end
And under look of eyes
Or the bold clasp of hands
The lovers know their wrong.

Wednesday 30 December 2020

Ring Of Peace - Paul Éluard

I have passed the doors of coldness
The doors of my bitterness
To come and kiss your lips

Tuesday 29 December 2020

I.R.ME (I Represent Me) - Ben Caesar

verse.1
its a complicated/
subject that i touch/
sensitive/
like injured love/

Monday 28 December 2020

Melody - Wazani Adamu Ijarafu

There is a melody
In the song of a mad man who lost his lover
To the romance of broken bottles

Sunday 27 December 2020

Liber VIII.LXXI (To Postumianus) - Marcus Valerius Martialis

Four pounds of silver plate in winter's season 
you sent me, Postumianus, ten years ago. 
While I hoped for a greater weight 
for gifts should stand fixed or grow 
there arrived two pounds more or less. 

Saturday 26 December 2020

Together and yet apart - Ketty Dan-Napwatt and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen

Together and yet apart
Separated by a need greater than ourselves
Until the dawn when the roosters crow, together we shall be

Friday 25 December 2020

Nativity - John Donne

Immensity, cloister’d in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment.

Thursday 24 December 2020

Christmas - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff

The market and streets stand still and ghostly,
Each house in all the silence glows,
Along the lanes my thoughts come with me,
As the festive spirit ever grows.

Wednesday 23 December 2020

The Tay Moses - Kathleen Jamie

What can I fashion for you
but a woven creel of river-
rashes, a golden
oriole’s nest my gift
wrought from the Firth –

Tuesday 22 December 2020

A Night-mooring at Wuchang - Lu Lun

Far off in the clouds stand the walls of Hanyang,
Another day's journey for my lone sail...

Monday 21 December 2020

The Tercets - Llywarch Hen

Set is the snare, the ash clusters glow, 
Ducks plash in the pools; breakers whiten below; 
More strong than a hundred is the heart's hidden woe. 

Sunday 20 December 2020

Saturday 19 December 2020

Hail! - Catherine Pozzi

Ardent love, if I were to die
Without having known where I possessed you,
In which sun was your abode,
In which past your time, in which hour
I have loved you!

Friday 18 December 2020

Night - Vicente Huidobro

You hear the night glide across the snow

The song fell down from the trees

Thursday 17 December 2020

The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer - Eugenio Montejo

The earth turned to bring us closer,
it spun on itself and within us,

Wednesday 16 December 2020

Crossing Reality - Floarea Ţuţuianu

It’s Monday,
and from the kiosk on the corner
a croissant and a new poet under my arm
I start my Dublinesque odyssey

Tuesday 15 December 2020

This Poem - Homero Pumarol

Every now and then I read this poem again.
I like it: it’s short and easy to forget.

Monday 14 December 2020

Crazy Day - Gustav Krklec

Rooster this morning said to me:
Dear friend, good evening!

Sunday 13 December 2020

Love Has Seven Names - Hadewijch

Love has seven names.
Do you know what they are?
Rope, Light, Fire, Coal
make up its domain.

Saturday 12 December 2020

I could’t want another life - Tao Yuanming

I could’t want another life. This is my
true calling, working fields and mulberries

Friday 11 December 2020

Islands - Guy Tirolien

This is the low house
in which my race has grown.
Twisting and lifting, the road
takes off beyond.

Wednesday 9 December 2020

Tuesday 8 December 2020

On the departure of his daughters - Muhammad al Fagīr

Umm Madās, the heifer of Kalaka,
her mother’s house is a gathering place for guests, never deserted.

Monday 7 December 2020

St. Olaf’s Fountain - Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

Like a ball of blood-red fire
Sinks the sun o’er forests sleeping,
Wondrously in splendor steeping
Glaciers far with cloud-capt spire.

Sunday 6 December 2020

Alyosha Karamazov - Gunnar Björling

The kiss of Christ is set above the world. And you realise:

Saturday 5 December 2020

a little something - Renata Frolova

Lost in now, lost in work 
struggling through piles of paperwork,
I am growing old faster than dreams are forgotten.

Friday 4 December 2020

The Pine Trees on the Sea-rock - Arvid Mörne

The pine trees on the sea-rock are my lyres,
And the storm is playing on them.
Skerry and islet boom. Lost fishing boats
Steer by the pine trees and head for home.

Thursday 3 December 2020

Leaving Atocha Station - Johannes Beilharz

On a spark I am situating myself 
there, in that busy, old-fashioned 
painted iron and glass structure 
in approximately 1975.

Tuesday 1 December 2020

Metamorphosis - Luis G. Urbina

It was an imprisoned kiss in love
with a hand of snow that had
the appearance of a listless iris
and the heartbeat of a bird in agony.