The Answer - George Remington

And if the rich and poor should meet
I trust they will each other greet,
And rich and poor and young and old
Together screen them from the cold:

He Jests Concerning His Poverty - Bartolomeo di Sant' Angelo

I am so passing rich in poverty
    That I could furnish forth Paris and Rome,

Arraignment Of The Men - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Males perverse, schooled to condemn
Women by your witless laws,
Though forsooth you are prime cause
Of that which you blame in them:

Calm After Storm - Giacomo Leopardi

The storm hath passed;
I hear the birds rejoice; the hen,
Returned into the road again,

To Celia - Francisco Balagtas

If I recall and read again
those days in love’s long-faded script,
would there be not a mark or trace
but Celia’s, imprinted on my breast?

Empty Houses - Mary Colborne-Veel

I
There's not a person in the street,
This merry-making summer day!
The houses stand in dull array;
No profit on their doors to beat,
For all their owners are away.

For Us! 1915 - S. Reinhold

Far, far in the east is a gaping grave,
There they bury thousands of soldiers brave
For us!

God - Sri Aurobindo

Thou who pervadest all the worlds below,
Yet sitst above,

Absence - Abu Bakr al-Turtushi

Every night I scan
the heavens with my eyes
seeking the star
that you are contemplating.

When you think of technology - Neema Komba

There you go with your technology,
Enthusiasts,
Preachers of how the world is not how it seems,
Once round and big, now within my reach.

The Pen - Muhammad al-Ghuzzi

Take a pen in your uncertain fingers.

Ado - Mary Ursula Bethell

It grows too fast! I cannot keep pace with it!
While I mow the front lawns, the drying green becomes impossible;
While I weed the east path, from the west path spring dandelions,
What time I sort the borders, the orchard escapes me.

To my friends - Primo Levi

Dear friends, and here I say friends
In the broad sense of the word:
Wife, sister, associates, relatives,
Schoolmates of both sexes,
People seen only once
Or frequented all my life;
Provided that between us, for at least a moment,
A line has been stretched,
A well-defined bond.

The Story of Isaac - Leonard Cohen

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, “I've had a vision
and you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told.”

Song - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Life is ours in vain
Lacking love, which never
Counts the loss or gain.
But remember, ever
Love is linked with pain.

Fireflies - Rolf Jacobsen

It was that evening with fireflies
while we were waiting for the bus to Velletri

The Prayer of the Lark - Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

I am here! O my God.
I am here! I am here!

The same inside - Anna Swir

Walking to your place for a love feast
I saw at a street corner
an old beggar woman.

Father, where do the wild swans go? - Ludvig Holstein

Father, where do the wild swans go?
Far, far. Ceaselessly winging,
Their necks outstraining, they haste them singing
Far, far. Whither, none may know.

The good news - Thích Nhat Hanh

They don’t publish
the good news.
The good news is published
by us.

In Flanders fields - John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

Hints on pronounciation for foreigners - TSW

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of these familiar traps.

The Cashier - Andrei Voznesensky

The dumb herd scowled:
“You’ve short-changed us,” they howled.
Pennies like medals stuck in the crust
Of sawdust.