Prayer and Blessing (The Hunter and the Hero - Book XII) - Bhāravi

With wonder struck the hero views 
The Lord of hosts in ashes smeared; 
He views the crescent in his locks, 
And bows before the God revered! 

Vondel's Lucifer (Act III, lines 1-120) - Joost van den Vondel

Luciferians. Chorus of Angels
Luciferians:
How oft belief proves but delusive hope!
Alas! how things have changed. We deemed no rank
Than ours more happy in this rising Realm,—
Yea, thought our state even like unto God's own,
More blessed than Earth and e'er unchangeable.—

Land of my Forefathers - Mathalea Ntaote

High in the bosom of snow-crowned mountains,
Where winds sing hymns only peaks know,
The valleys hold whispers of cattle bells,
Silent vow-taking spirits linger where my forefather’s graves lay.

The Clearing - Francisca Stoecklin

I think of you. I think of our hours of love
That we spent, so sweetly, in the wooded depths..
On damp leaves, past earnest firs,
Beech, brown mushrooms on hardly trodden
Paths, we came to a clearing.

Come, keep this Feast - Bishop Nektarios of Aegina

Come, keep this Feast, who holy things revere,
And with pure minds, your Lord adore with fear.

Mother reads my poems - Ranko Pavlović

Unexpectedly I turned up
In my parents’ house
Once full of joy
And found lonely old woman
Grown into numerous years,
With glasses on her nose
And a book in her hands.

Box of coloured pencils - Nadia Mifsud

you are my cousin, my aunt
you are my brother-in-law, my sister
you are the boy who sat next to me
on the classroom bench

Poem no. 19 - Cyro Pimentel

I hear within me fugitive goddesses
Played on from afar by pastoral stars.

Distinctive face - Anila Bukhari

I was born into a family of beauty and charm,
But I was the odd one out, with a distinctive face.
My hair wasn’t long and black, but short and brown,
My skin was not fair, but a deep shade of brown.

The Luny law - Maryam Ala Amjadi

WARNING NO (1):
This is not a poem
I’m just trying to ask you
to hear what I’m not saying
and I promise
these tears are not mine
The last time I cried
I was seven
I had lost my lollipop
maybe I was too small to have it
and now I am too grown up for an apple
I’m not even Eve, I know
for that you need three prerequisites:
One, there must be a clown—the very one people
call Satan—to make us laugh loud enough to
wake the dead
Two, you must be very beautiful and preferably
lusty, lusty enough to stupefy your own ribs
Three, there must be a tree
the very one that will become Moses’s rod
for the years to come
to pluck
            smell
                         and…
at last three dots
which end in an “alas!”

WARNING NO (2):
This is a NO PARKING area
relevant or irrelevant
that is not my question
anyway
last night two people got married inside me
and three lunatics
with three ugly mouths
offered me three times as a cigarette to one another
in this chaos
an old blind man
stole me from my solitude
and kissed me three times
for one of his three sweethearts
I still warn you
“NO PARKING”

WARNING NO (3):
People need shadows
shadows need people
not much difference, eh?
But every straight line is not a road
And every road is not straight
Still
Who needs whom?
You should never ask
                                   think
                                             or know that
particularly, when you think
you need to need someone
who thinks doesn’t need to need you much
no, you should never…

WARNING NO (4):
Beware of gravity
Men are born men or saints
saints are happy people
no matter how much an earthling
and from earth they are
gravity has no effect on them
but men live with their eternal pain:
Immortality

WARNING NO (5):
They say
I’m a luny
but I only knock my head
on the wall sometimes
or tear my little finger’s skin into more little
bits
just to remind myself that
                            “I AM”
when I get a beating
I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry,
I cry
all
      these
               three-four lines
                                        too
and then
                                         Loves
                                                       plays
                       blossoms
                                                                  loses
                                                                             fades
life begins
                                                                                        d     i     e     s
and the nurse feels uneasy
in her white uniform

WARNING NO (6):
Forget all these warnings
Or else you’ll remember things
you've got to remember to forget remembering them

WARNING NO (7):
Forget warning no (6) too.

---

Maryam Ala Amjadi (born 1984) Iran
Source: IOWA Graduate College - The International Writing Program