The Poet - Yone Noguchi

Out of the deep and the dark,
A sparkling mystery, a shape,
Something perfect,
Comes like the stir of the day:

Goodman’s Bay II - Christian Campbell

Straight to the bush to gather cracked
bottles of beer and rum, shards of seaglass
smoothed by wind and sand. We Haitian

For the world’s beauty - Umar Timol

For the world’s beauty / to be complete /

Dream-wall - Asad Chowdhury

Dreams have no doors nor walls
They stroll like open skies,
White birds
flying
circling
In the deep blue sky.

Flying-Fox - Albert Wendt

More rat than bird,
more superstition than fox,
you hang from that banyan

The Mural of Arrogance - Mohammad Almoghrabi

     to Amina’s soul

The world is a
wasteland,
a wasteland is my destiny.

Custom - Grace Mera Molisa

Custom
is an English word
English
a confluence
of streams of words

Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain - John of Damascus (John Mansur)

Come, you faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness!
God has brought his Israel
Into joy from sadness,
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.

Wishes - Niyi Osundare

Wish I could still laugh with the lotus
On the bank of the Nile

Know ye not Ivar Sir Alfsön? - Sigrid Undset

Fair goes the dance at Munkolm
   On silver sand.
There danceth Ivar Sir Alfsön —
   Holds the Queen’s own hand.
      Know ye not Ivar Sir Alfsön?

Obeah Night - Jean Rhys

A night I seldom remember
(If it can be helped)
The night I saw Love's dark face
Was Love's dark face
“And cruel as he is”? I've never known that
I've tried my best you may be certain (whoever asks)
My human best

Love song - Anonymous Misīrī tribesman

Fair without [adornment of] beads and necklace,
I pray for you to God the One the Creator
that graciously He may grant you a divorce.

Sierra Leone at 48 - Abdulai Walon-Jalloh

I'm in ripe middle age
Facing the difficulties of a new page
Yet I'm expected to be a sage
Though I'm bound in my little cage

Differences - Joanne C. Hillhouse

“Is his choice”
He says
Matter of fact
Like the boy deserved to die
For this
Accident of biology

The Day of Easter - Dionysios Solomos

The last cool star of dawn was
foretelling the brightest sunshine;
no cloud, no drift of mist was travelling
across any part of the sky.

Dear Matefele Peinam - Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

dear matafele peinam,
you are a seven month old sunrise of gummy smiles
you are bald as an egg and bald as the buddha
you are thunder thighs and lightning shrieks

The Rood speaks - Cynewulf

“It was long past – I still remember it –
That I was cut down at the copse’s end,
Moved from my root. Strong enemies there took me,
Told me to hold aloft their criminals,
Made me a spectacle. Men carried me
Upon their shoulders, set me on a hill,
A host of enemies there fastened me.

Emerald Dunes - Ketty Nivyabandi

From the depths of misty silences
The night’s last secrets are enfolded
Within the numb necks of old roosters
While the watchmen shamefully doze
Great women rise up,

Numerical Conjecture - Fawziyah Abu-Khalid

Six
Seven
Nine
These are not numerical symbols

I Want to Walk with Jesus - Kumalawaty Sundari

His loving arms shield me
In my daily pilgrimage.

St.Kitts and Nevis Independence 33 - Edrice Lewis Viechweg

We are a nation, proud and free,
Citizens of Liamigua and Oualie.
Fertile Land, Land of Beautiful Waters,
Cherished home of our sons and daughters.

How Could You? - Jovon Uwimana

How we used to be!
We were good neighbours,
But I don’t know what we had become by April ‘94.

Modernity in the Desert - Soad al Kuwari

We talk of many things we don’t understand.
Modernity in the desert! The latest
joke in a world full of jokes.

God's end - Bruce Levitan

Most of us walk around as if
we have our eyes closed;
Like letters that are sans serif
we miss out on what's exposed.

The passion of St George - Maria Grech Ganado

I drew up short. And, yes, I drew in startled –
  –  that shorn hair, standing on edge
like a black hedgehog, instead of the soft tresses
I’d dreamt had bound my heart –

African Moon - Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo

I have dreamed for you
Friend
A beautiful moon

I see it happening - Adam Abdurrahman

I see a dreadful plague
Spreading its pestilence here.
They call it development.
They call it refinement.

Monrovia 2008 - Patiricia Jabbeh Wesley

On the side walk, patches of people
linger late.