Feminine Arithmetic - Charles Graham Halpine

LAURA
ON me he shall ne’er put a ring,
  So, mamma, ’t is vain to take trouble—
For I was but eighteen in spring,
  While his age exactly is double.

Concerning the Degrees in the Ken of Unity - Sheykhi

Come, heart, if thou the loftiest aim desire,
Know, soul, if thou the Utmost Goal enquire,
That Ken of Unity the loftiest is,
The utmost limit of all saintship this.

Confidence - Max Nordau

Said the State to the prelate your pay we will withhold.
Smiled the priest in reply, I scorn your pow’er and gold,

when lights go out - Mongane Wally Serote

(for some who are in south african jails)

1
it is with the shadows of night
when the sun comes and goes
the moon comes and goes
that we ask, in weary voices, which fall into the depth of the gulf:
how does it feel to be you
watching and waiting
to feel the heavy weight of every minute come followed by another
and nothing
even everything written in blood
says nothing about how we could wake up tomorrow and build a day

Living Space - Imtiaz Dharker

There are just not enough
straight lines. That
is the problem.

And after death the judgement - Rāmprasād Sen

O my Mind, what charge shall I bring against thee?
Thou knowest how to say śa and ba¹,
but knowest not the names of Durgā and of Śiva.
Jilipīs, khājās, luchīs, mandās, sarbhājās²
all these hast thou eaten.

I am Different - Michele 'Mickey' Hetherington

Nothing fits me, and it’s not about my clothes.
Nothing fits me, and no one even knows.

Yellow Sorry - Yuka Tsukagoshi

Blight blight borderline
I've been given a yellow apology.

To Leuconoe - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim

Pluck the roses while they bloom,
Autumn is not spring!
Snatch each hour as it flies,
Time is on the wing!

Popularity - Sung Yü

The eagle is king of the birds; among fishes
Leviathan holds the first place.

20 - Cees Nooteboom

Of all rhythms he found day and night
the most beautiful. One, two, and thank God
no three. That only came later, when
everything was over, a dark number

Dayspring of eternity - Christian Knorr von Rosenroth

Dayspring of eternity,
Light of Light, from God proceeding,
On this morn we turn to Thee,
For Thy radiant brightness pleading.
Let Thy beams dispel with might
Sin's dark night.

Shadows, Nothing More - José María Contursi

I want to slowly open my veins,
to shed every drop of my blood at your feet…
so I can prove to you
that I could not love you more
and then…so I can die.

Letter to Time - Claribel Alegría

Dear Sir:
I am writing this letter on my birthday.
I received your present. I don’t like it.

Vincent and the Orient - Lorna Goodison

The blackbird in the bougainvillea bush
brushes against the powder blue sky.
The carnelian froth of the flowering tree,
and the way that this picture
framed itself inside my window,

Discovery - Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Green-muscled ocean
Idol of many arms like an octopus

Basic Overhaul - Nijole Miliauskaite

in a frenzy I turn the whole house upside down
from basement to attic, amazing myself, I can't stop wondering
what imp has possessed me, it's really
so ludicrous

We Are Never Too Old for Loving - Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkovitz

We are never too old for loving.
Happy is he, who does not deny it
And strides through fate as if it were nothing,
For, by love, will he always be guided.

Letter on Torment - ‎Rastko Nemanjić

I blended into witless mob
and levelled with them,
being destitute of good deeds
and rich in desire,

The springtime of our lives is brief - Petar II Petrović-Njegoš

The springtime of our lives is brief,
A scorching summer follows behind,
A turbulent autumn and a freezing winter;

Bird Shadow - Tanaka Ikuko

Winter morning a little bird on the road
Perhaps shot
through the hole by its eye
Turning it over, I touch yellow breast down

21 - Dejido Bejide

It was formless, weightless, and faceless
Like a vile scene that plagues the head of an infant,

Incursion of the Crimean Tartars - Anonymous

Not a mighty cloud has covered the sky,
Nor mighty thunders have thundered:
Whither travels the dog, Crimea's tsar? —
To the mighty tsarate of Muscovy.

Discussion of Venus - Robert Schindel

Summery calm the ocean in the creek
I am nothing, but underclouds
Are swallowing the evening star. The morning
Light derails in the eyelash wreaths
Of so many dream digesters
Friends around me

Verses addressed to a kindred tribe - Alfadhel ibn Alabas

Why thus to passion give the rein?
Why seek your kindred tribe to wrong?
Why strive to drag to light again
The fatal feud entomb 'd so long?

O Christ, protect me! - Aonghus of the Divinity

O Christ, protect me!
How can I know your power?
Your peace I need now
Branch of fairest flower!

Like An Angel - Ehsan Sehgal

You are like an angel;
You have lovely heart, decent thoughts

Ghazal - Hasan Sijzi of Dehli

The universe has no one to be one with;
Out of hundreds of watchers,
not one can see.

Wildflowers and Hothouse-plants - Henrik Johan Ibsen

"Good Heavens, man, what a freak of taste!
What blindness to form and feature!
The girl's no beauty, and might be placed
As a hoydenish kind of creature."

It's about time - Bruce Levitan

So we enter a new decade
but what does it mean:
January 1st 2020?