Of Flash Mobs and a Foreshadowing - L.M. Kazmierczak

Originally 120 men
Put together the first singing stint.
No divisions among them,
Singing out to their hearts' content.

From The Top Of The Stairs - Zbigniew Herbert

Of course
those who are standing at the top of the stairs
know
they know everything

You frogs! - Sakutarō Hagiwara

Inside the tangle of blue pampas grass and reeds
frogs seem to be bulging out whitely.

Round the Clock - Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

pool used to be free at chong fan’s:
we knocked back tequila shots in personalised mugs
slow-cooked soup too, then sweet, creamy coffee
from sulawesi, the longhouse ceiling in teak

Her Story - Andrei Voznesensky

I started up the engine and I lingered.
Where should I go? The night was fine, I figured.
The bonnet trembled like a nervous hound.
I shivered. Night lit up the houses around.
The Balzac age, I felt its burning pain,
Chilled to the bone, I couldn't hold my own.
The age of balsam wine mixed with champagne!..

Sleep blues - Rethabile Masilo

Sleep blues
As I was sitting here
the roof fell in, a cat
jumped out of me

The Arabian Desert's dust - Imam Ahmad Raza

The Arabian Desert's dust radiates more than the dawn light;
The Arabian lamp's smoke shines more than the Moon at night.

From Baltic Meditations - Mariya Avvakumova

Minuscule bouquets in minuscule earthenware vases –
they tell you so much about the Latvian soul.

The Weaver's Song - Carmen Sylva

Fly, shuttle, fly,
At the war my boy must die,
My daughter's betrayed and cast aside,
My wife is gone, of shame she died,
Fly, shuttle, fly.

Without love Joy's royal palms lament - Lope Félix de Vega Carpio

Without love Joy's royal palms lament
too well, and cast away their branches to the sea;
without love Daphne mourns her lonely tree
of laurel without fruit: and, over discontent,

The Barrier - Claude McKay

I must not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
I must not watch you as you go
Your sun-illumined way;

Black Rhythms of Peru - Nicomedes Santa Cruz

Rhythms of slavery
Against bitterness and sorrows.
Keeping time to the beat of the chains
– Black rhythms of Peru.

To recover - Francisco Luis Bernárdez

If to recover what was recovered
I had to first lose what was lost,
If to obtain the obtainable
I had to bear what was borne,

Ascension - Adam of St. Victor

Satan and the realms infernal
Having spoiled, to joys supernal
Christ returneth back once more:
As His upward way He wendeth,
As before, when He descendeth,
Angels set them to adore.

I'm Not Saying Anything Against Alexander - Bertold Brecht

Timur, I hear, took the trouble to conquer the earth.
I don't understand him.
With a bit of hard liquor you can forget the earth.

How I hold myself together — after the blaring onslaughts from loudspeakers - Ayokunle Samuel Betiku

Lately, I have learnt to write as I sense.
It is one thing to dissect the body, but it’s a more difficult
thing to dissect the heart.

Blue Illusion - Arquímedes Arci

Haughty and conceited, like a pagan goddess
you passed by me, showing your spite,
and since that day I know that I have lost
the ineffable glory of a dream of love.

That Same Night - Elone N. Ainebyoona

That same night,
He picked me along the way.
He charmed me with his bundles.
He assured me of pleasure each day.
He took me around his castles.
He asked me to stay.

Judgement - Timwa Lipenga

She stood before them
And was judged:

A laboratory - Viktar Licvinau

In a small lab
resembling a box
the planets, meteorites,
sun and stars,
nitrogen and cosmic ice
revolve in their orbits.

How Virtue Drives Out Vice - Francis of Assisi

Where there is charity and wisdom
     there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Rainbow at Night - Antonio Machado

   The train moves through the Guadarrama
one night on the way to Madrid.
The moon and the fog create
high up a rainbow.

Poems: I - Publius Annius Florus

I've no mind to be a Caesar,
Strolling round among the Britons,

Voices in The Wilderness - Duma Ndloru

If you listen to the wind
you will hear voices in the wilderness
sounds of hunters going after the hunted
music of afrika’s creation
melodies and rhythms
whispering in the wilderness;

Things That Arouse a Fond Memory of the Past - Sei Shōnagon

Dried hollyhock. To find a piece of deep violet or grape-coloured material that has been pressed between the pages of a notebook.

with traveling umbrella-hats - Kobayashi Issa

with traveling umbrella-hats

Funere mersit acerbo - Giosuè Carducci

O thou who on yon flowery hill art lying,
And by thy side our father too is sleeping,
Dost thou not hear, through the tall grasses sighing
Upon thy grave, a little voice of weeping?

Hail Him the King of glory - Henry de Fluiter

Tell it to every kindred and nation,
Tell it far and near;
Earth’s darkest night will fade with the dawning,
Jesus will soon appear.

Texaco Oil Storage Tanks - Roger Robinson

You silver gods, with viscous black innards,
skin of iron plates and bones of steel rivets,

Silence - Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg

When in heaven, bolts are ready
And the lightning clouds are gathered,
Walkers then are striding quickly
And to nests the birds are flying,
Comes the silence.