Venice masks

Monday, 2 November 2026

Belfast Confetti - Ciarán Carson

Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining
     exclamation marks,
Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And the
     explosion
Itself — an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst of
     rapid fire …

Sunday, 1 November 2026

To God - Giovanni Battista Cotta

“There is no God,” the fool in secret said: 
“There is no God that rules or earth or sky.” 
Tear off the band that folds the wretch’s head, 
That God may burst upon his faithless eye! 

Saturday, 31 October 2026

Shattering Mirrors - Lauren Li

I always thought that she was happier here than there
Her home without love, without life
We would have shared the same happiness, but
My happiness and my love
She took it all away

Friday, 30 October 2026

A pilgrimage to Angkor (extract) - Suttantaprija Ind

Oh, how pitiful is the sacred Singha, built by our ancestors
Once so lively, as if brimming with movement.
Now broken, collapsed upon the earth
What a tragedy, to see you rendered powerless.

Thursday, 29 October 2026

Arguing Over Where To Live In Singapore - Toh Hsien Min

You’d lived in Tampines and Pasir Ris,
so you’ve a base of knowledge to proclaim
with no room for debate that Bedok is
the liveliest town centre in the East.

Wednesday, 28 October 2026

Love simple and pure - Juste Olivier

I love you, so sweetly dressed
In tenderness and love;
To sit with you, I'm blessed
As one from heaven above.

Monday, 26 October 2026

Fleeting Joys - Ismaaciil Mire

Downpours of rain, dry valleys newly watered,
Hillsides resplendent with new verdant growth
And clans assembling under and acacia tree –
On such things were my thoughts and affections set,
But this world provides no lasting satisfaction.

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;