Venice masks

Sunday, 25 October 2026

Safety - Evelyn Underhill

Most wonderful, most deep security
That circles in the soul at hours of pain.
When the assaulting harms
Of death and love and treachery set on,
When we must con
The dreadful lessons of mortality;

Saturday, 24 October 2026

To hold our language high - Michaël Slory

Don't make this language
get lost so carelessly.

On the day we met
we saw it fit
to speak it well.

Friday, 23 October 2026

The world - Henry Vaughan

            1.

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
    All calm, as it was bright, 
And round beneath it, Time is hours, days, years
    Driven by the spheres 
Like a vast shadow mov'd, in which the world
    And all her train were hurl'd; 

Thursday, 22 October 2026

Izina - Ketty Nivyabandi

History will remember this man
Our grandchildren will study him between school recesses
Old women will speak of him as a strange enigma
A myth, an eccentric aberration . . .

Monday, 19 October 2026

Credo - Guy Tirolien

me too, I have my pocket credo
but don't go and repeat it before the garrulous winds
and the passing crowds
they'd laugh at you

Sunday, 18 October 2026

My only begotten - Nadezhda Chernova

A strange kind of wish we have here,
to grasp at a moment’s picture
of a tomtit, a cloud, or a deer,
then flick through our pages even quicker.

Saturday, 17 October 2026

My world - Anonymous

Say goodbye to our courtyard.
Tomorrow we’re setting out on the road,
leaving our little courtyard to be demolished.

Thursday, 15 October 2026

Speak Up - Yesenqul Jaqypbek

I have a secret that hurts my soul.
There is one night I will remember forever.
There is a debt I still owe to society.
There is a complaint I couldn’t voice to the UN.

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

A wonderful night - Jontemir

The night bus stop.
Waiting in the corner.
Smoke rises from my cigarette.
“Are you waiting for the 94?”
I shake my head.

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

Mt. Paektu (Chapter 1: 1) - Jo Ki Chon

Hills and mountains, hills and cliffs
Stretch unending out of sight.
Pass one valley on your way
And another lies before you.