Electric Lock - Shang Ch'in

Tonight the streetlights where I live went out at midnight as usual.

The Procession - Claribel Alegría

There is a still silence
thinking me
another flayed silence
walking inside me

The Next Take - Christy Birmingham

You sat there in the dark, collecting dust
For days upon days
As you laid on a bed of pens and
Scissors with a bent handle.

The Great Despair - Roque Dalton

   My country you do not exist
you’re my silhouette badly drawn that’s all
a word that fooled the enemy

i am selfish. with my blackness - Inès Giramata

i am selfish.
with my Blackness.
my Black features.
i am selfish with my Black tears.

The Prophet - Aleksandr Pushkin

I dragged my feet through desert gloom,
Tormented by the spirit's yearning.
And saw a six-winged Seraph bloom
Upon the footpath's barren turning.

#Burundi2015 - Ketty Nivyabandi

may you be more
than a game of cards
may you be more
than dry bones

Pink and Blue - Ras Mo

Ever since I was small I try to understand
what it really really means to be a man
because some things I learnt since I was a baby
like pink for a girl and blue for me
so I ask myself constantly
what does it to really mean to be manly
in this pink and blue society
How should I act like a man
How should I act like a man

I had a dream one sultry summer’s night - Martin Kloess

I had a dream one sultry summer’s night
The stardust cast a trail to light my way
A gentle stream was there to guide my flight
To place some purpose to meaning of day

Nature's Orchestra - Jane Okot P’ Bitek Langoya

The branches of the trees nod in unison
As the trees hum softly
In rhythm to the rattling leaves

Plaza de España - Marcelo Ensema Nsang

The tired afternoon falls
on a rhythm of palm trees

Utter - Vahni Capildeo

Night drinks salt water from a bucket, draws
a sleeve from the sea, spills hand across mouth.

The Dream of Dakiki - Ferdowsi

My heart was fired, as from his sight it turned
Toward the world's Sovereign Throne, and inly yearned,
'May I lay hand upon that book some day
And tell, in my own words, that ancient lay!'

I'm Your Slave, You are My Love - Nezim Frakulla

I'm your slave, you are my love,
I turn to you, my beloved,
Save me now or let me perish,

Exhortation to the Village (8) - Ateif Khieri

Tomorrow the straitened wars
In darkness, suddenly,
the crates of fruit terrify

Poem - Soad al Kuwari

and I bear all orbits
on the strong arms of my delusion
I am a stain on runaway destiny,

Daughter of the Low Land - Peter Anyang’-Nyong’o

After I have communed with them,
With dead men’s ideas;
‘Nya dyang’ ’ comes to me
With accusing persuasion:
       ‘Come, “wuod twon”,
        My activities are vital.’

"Fire" Third State: Voice of Prayer - Rogelio Sinán

- How very late have begun to flow the rivers of dawn!
- What torrential music has seeped through all the wounds!

Cavafy's Whip - Adam Fet'hi

The prickly pear,
thorny, of wily fingers, friend to Tunisians on wedding nights
(when the grains of chance ripen) and eid mornings, when
halawa calms
the tufts of burnouses.

Fierce was the wild billow - St. Anatolius of Constantinople

Fierce was the wild billow,
Dark was the night;
Oars laboured heavily,
Foam glimmered white;

Herbs of the Past - Zahir al-Ghafri

Thus ...
did an icy sun hurl you into the depths of the forest
Now the song on the angel’s lips is your guide to life

Vafthruthnismol - Snorri Sturluson

Othin spake: 
"Counsel me, Frigg, for I long to fare,
And Vafthruthnir fain would find;
In wisdom old with the giant wise
Myself would I seek to match."

When someone tells you “you look smart” - Jiwon Lee

When someone tells you
You look smart,
What does it mean?

Camões - Jose Lopes

Among the great poets
You are the greatest still.
You were on a par with the prophets,
You knew how to love!

Room 421 - Menno Wigman

My mother’s near kaput. She’s got a hutch,
not quite a box, and sits the same day out
each day on her much pissed-on chair. Can stare
at trees outside, and in those trees are birds
that know not who has once begotten them.

Sewn Beneath My Lids - Kushal Poddar

Deeper I traverse
into the field of
golden wheat, it gets
stickier, thick with
insane brushstrokes.

Holy Spirit Prayer - Saint Augustine

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit,
That my thoughts may all be holy.

Poets Among Each Other - Gyula Illyés

There can be no virtuous man
Who stops writing poetry
And stops telling the truth.

Life - R. H. Lola Koundakjian

She dices the onions finely.
A construction worker, 25, falls to his death.