This is what I most want - Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

This is what I most want
unpursued, alone
to reach beyond the light
that I am furthest from.

The Giraffe - Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev

Today I see that your look is particularly sad,
And your hands are particularly fragile, clasped over your knees.
Just listen: far, far away, on Lake Chad
Roams a proud giraffe.

At the Moor - Georg Trakl

Wanderer in the blackened wind. Dry reeds whisper
in the stillness of the moor. A column of savage birds
ensues in the dawning sky.
Over murky waters they cross.

Evening Song - Matthias Claudius

The moon is risen, beaming,
The golden stars are gleaming
So brightly in the skies;
The hushed, black woods are dreaming,
The mists, like phantoms seeming,
From meadows magically rise.

The Last Picture in the World - Al Purdy

A hunched gray shape
framed by leaves
with lake water behind

I Said It To You - Paul Éluard

I said it to you for the clouds
I said it to you for the tree of the sea

A Bush Christening - A B Banjo Paterson

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.

Now it's autumn... - Mihai Eminescu

Now it's autumn, leaves roam and scatter,
Again the wind flings heavy drops against the glazing;
And you're reading old letters, tattered and fading
And retrace a whole life-time in just one hour.

The Weathercock of the Cathedral at Quito - Jorge Carrera Andrade

The cock on the weathervane
Cannot flap his wings
Even though today is a feast.

Last Words - Annette Freün von Droste-Hülshoff

When I am gone, brook no complaining,
Beloved, shed no tears, I pray!
Where I shall dwell, there peace is reigning,
There shines an everlasting day.

I picked this flower for you - Victor Hugo

I picked this flower for you on the hilltop.
In the steep scarp that overhangs the tide,
Which only eagles know and only they can reach,
Calmly she grew on the rock's creviced side.

Nature's Way - Ikkyu

The wise heathens have no knowledge;
They just keep their mind continually set on the Way.

The Thracian Filly - Anacreon

Ah tell me why you turn and fly,
 My little Thracian filly shy?
         Why turn askance
         That cruel glance,
 And think that such a dunce am I?

Evening Tea - Euphrase Kezilahabi

While we're drinking tea on the verandah
watching our children
as they swing joyfully
we ought to know our rope
has frayed and worn thin:
a few more strands and we will fall.
Once, you used to push me
up higher than half a circle;
once, I used to catch you
as you almost fell.

The Breadbaker - Albinas Zukauskas

The millstones are footworn.
The walk is overgrown with grass.
There is no doorsill.
Aspens grow where the cradle once stood.
A bird warbles for the breadbaker.

Longing - Mengistu Lemma

The train hauled me out of London —
out of the smoke, the smog, the grime,
the filthy mix of soot and dust —

Peace - Henry Vaughan

My Soul, there is a country
     Afar beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
     All skillful in the wars;

Marseilles - Frédéric Mistral

Thou fair Marseilles, who openest on the sea
Thy haughty eyes and gazest languidly,

The Combat (The Hunter and the Hero - Book XI) - Bhāravi

Towering like a forest tree
   Stood the God of the lofty mind,
And his darksome hosts remained
   Like his shadow cast behind.

Mince and Tatties - J. K. Annand

I dinna like hail tatties
Pit on my plate o mince
For when I tak my denner
I eat them baith at yince.

Fiesole - Giosuè Carducci

Where Fiesole saw from her citadel
The livid Arno once stagnate, the place
Where flowers Sulla's city, now slow of pace
Franciscans climb, recalled by clanging bell.

These poems, she said - Robert Bringhurst

These poems, these poems,
these poems, she said, are poems
with no love in them. 

When Morning Breaks - Corsino Fortes

Oh when
Oh when the morning breaks
And the night becomes more night
When the morning breaks
With its feet on the ground
And the earth in its heart
When blood flows from the body
Like a tree with open arms
And the seed shouts from the rock
Like a green-mouthed drum
And from that sound
That warrior’s blood
Mouths are born
centred mouths
torn mouths
In the wheel of the sun

De Chaos - Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

You Still Wonder - John M Wenitong

I know you wonder why - them Abos get so mu$h
Once we could sing and dance and fly man you're really out of touch
We bin seen the white man comin all ran down to say g'day
But he used his guns an know-all eye blew lots of us away

Old Canal Waters - Georges Rodenbach

The waters of the old canals are mentally feeble,
so mournful, among the dead towns, along the quais

The Canoe - Isabella Valancy Crawford

My masters twain made me a bed
Of pine-boughs resinous, and cedar;
Of moss, a soft and gentle breeder
Of dreams of rest; and me they spread
With furry skins, and laughing said,
"Now she shall lay her polish'd sides,
As queens do rest, or dainty brides,
Our slender lady of the tides!"

cool air (two Haiku) - Kobayashi Issa

cool air--