The Two Friends - Jean de La Fontaine

  Axiochus, a handsome youth of old,
And Alcibiades, (both gay and bold,)
So well agreed, they kept a beauteous belle,
With whom by turns they equally would dwell.

The Cosmic Fabric - Yakov Polonsky

This vast web, of Nature’s weaving,
Is God’s garment, so ’tis said.
In that fabric I—a living,
I—a still unbroken thread.

The Brook - Lopez Maldonado

Laugh of the mountain!—lyre of bird and tree!
Pomp of the meadow! mirror of the morn!

Could I find a bonnie glen - Anne M’Vicar Grant

Could I find a bonnie glen,
  Warm and calm, warm and calm:
Could I find a bonnie glen,
  Warm and calm;

Silent be they - Aulus Gellius

Silent be they, and far from hence remove,
By scenes like ours not likely to improve,

Where, ruin'd Sion, do thy glories lie? - Jean Racine

Where, ruin'd Sion, do thy glories lie?
All lands erewhile thy sacred pomp admir'd ;
Now thou art dust; thy grandeur quite expir'd ;
And nought to us remains save mournful memory.

Far as I journey from my lady fair - Johannes Hadloub

Far as I journey from my lady fair,
I have a messenger who quickly goes,
Morning, and noon, and at the evening’s close:

Humanity - Sa’dī

A man found in the desert a thirsty dog,
      which from want of drink was at its last gasp.
The worthy man made a bucket of his cap,
      and twisted his muslin sash into a rope;
Then he girded his waist and extended his arms for service,
      and gave to the feeble dog a sup of water.

O thou wolf, eager for death - Antar

O thou wolf, eager for death,
I have left thee wallowing in dust, and spoiled of life;

A sang o' Zion - George MacDonald

Ane by ane they gang awa’,
The Getherer gethers grit an smaa;
Ane by ane maks ane an a'!

The dusky swallows will return - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

The dusky swallows will return
To hang their nests beneath thy eaves,
And playing to their nestlings call
As once they called of old.

To the Crucified Homeland - Baltrušaitis Jurgis

An orphan's fate, to stray and stumble
On ways of blood and fire, is thine...
Yet in your wordless grief, my humble.
Believing heart, await the Sign...

The vast flood - Ikkyu

The vast flood
Rolls onward

Impassable bridge - Mzi Mahola

Impassable bridge
I phoned for an MP
A former bosom friend.
His secretary asked,
In connection with what?

Marching Men - Marjorie Pickthall

Under the level winter sky
I saw a thousand Christs go by.
They sang an idle song and free
As they went up to calvary.

We lay here in the cold harsh wind - Aaron Ashby

We lay here in the cold harsh wind,
Which whips at our knobby limbs relentlessly

No coffin, no grave - Jared Angira

He was buried without a coffin
without a grave
the scavengers performed the post-mortem
in the open mortuary
without sterilized knives
in front of the night club

Youth and Age - Mimnermus

Ah ! fair and lovely bloom the flowers of youth;
    On men and maids they beautifully smile:

Optimism - Alfred Victor Ratcliffe

At last there'll dawn the last of the long year,⁠
⁠Of the long year that seemed to dream no end;
Whose every dawn but turned the world more drear
⁠And slew some hope, or led away some friend.
Or be you dark, or buffeting, or blind,
We care not, Day, but leave not death behind.

August 6 - Sankichi Tōge

can we forget that flash?
suddenly 30,000 in the streets disappeared
in the crushed depths of darkness
the shrieks of 50,000 died out

The Spirit - Woodbine Willie

When there ain't no gal to kiss you,
And the postman seems to miss you,
And the fags have skipped an issue,
Carry on.

Leaving for the front - Alfred Lichtenstein

Before I die, I must just find this rhyme.
Be quiet, my friends, and do not waste my time.

Foreign Lands - Robert Louis Stevenson

Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lauds.

The old houses of Flanders - Ford Madox Heuffer

The old houses of Flanders,
They watch by the high cathedrals;

Farewell at the Moment of Parting - António Agostinho Neto

My mother
(oh black mothers whose children have departed)
you taught me to wait and to hope
as you have done through the disastrous hours

and every day - Ihor Kalynets

and every day
there is one sun fewer