The Cottage - Taras Shevchenko

Perhaps my mother prayerless trod
Nor knelt on my behalf to God,
But brought me up to what I am
As naturally as a lamb,

Pencil Letter - Irina Ratushinskaya

I know it won't be received
Or sent. The page will be
In shreds as soon as I have scribbled it.

I live with my Lord - Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks to the Quran, I live with my Lord, the Incomparable Auxiliary, I gained full control of my soul and expelled Satan, the outcast.

To Ulla - Carl Michael Bellman

Ulla, mine Ulla, tell me, may I hand thee
Reddest of strawberries in milk or wine?
Or from the pond a lively fish? Command me!

After life comes death - Dada Masiti

After life comes death
When the Shaikh dies, no one should weep
Write “in the name of God,”
For everything begins that way

Daughter of Locusts - Ribka Sibhatu

Locusts, darkened sky,
flayed earth. A mother
panting in bed.

Like Elephants - Gaamangwe Mogami

Before the sad years made homes in our bones,
And our blood turned into riots,
We hang our swelling breasts in the branches of mamma’s¹ morala tree,
And we sang old gospels to the humans sleeping thick in our ribs,
Yet to be born.

Perfectionist Farmer’s Daughter - Xiomara M. Cacho Caballero

You improve the value of the habitat
Intensifying from dawn your love for plants and flowers
intending to provide a solution to the Environmental footprint
capturing the carbon of the earth and the peace that
the flora provides you

Fishhawks - Anne Szumigalski

my son stands in waist-high water
the salt reddens his skin
out of his face spring wiry hairs
thickening to a beard
his arms have become wide and heavy

Sapadilli Tam - James Martinez

You want to hear of of w’at I know,
About de fish day tark of so,
De one dat people use to see,
Outside o’ Sapadilli Caye?