A Few Things Worth Considering - Kunle Okesipe

The number of its fragments when a life is broken,

The partition of heart for the system file of wishes,

The decor of the recycle bin for the remains of dreams,

easter sunday, travesties - José F. A. Oliver

[april four-liner]

in the hermitage jacket chocolate

from the Cross drips marzipan

& snowblend.

Outside the window

The ferryman - Emile Verhaeren

The ferryman, a green reed 'twixt his teeth,

With hand on oar, against the current strong

Had rowed and rowed so long.

Break and Bricks - Huguette Bertrand

Take all the walls down

and let dreams come out

from darkness

letting them expand

in the wilderness

of all memories

behind closed doors

The Modest Little Wish - Carl Spitteler

In the days when I was little

   had they asked me what I wanted,

What I'd wish for first if wishes

   ever could be really granted,

We Have Everything We Need - Selina Nwulu

We have each become a small world,

spinning from one collision to another.

We scrub cities off our skins

and watch its roads leave tracks in the bath.

Christ The Word! - Bishop Nektarios of Aegina

Christ The Word! Thine Incarnation

Links my nature to Thine own;

By Thy sore Humiliation,

I am lifted to Thy throne;

By Thy suffering Thou hast fired me

With a zeal to sacrifice,

And to noble life inspired me,—

Hence my grateful songs arise.

Ghost - Reza Shirmarz

I don’t like the words

“good bye”

between your lips.

How silent are you? - Tabitha M'bawa

You come to take parents and relatives

Leaving the children

Crying

In endless sorrow.

Fitzy and the Revolution - Ishion Hutchinson

The rumour broke first in Duckensfield.

Fitzy dropped the shutters of his rum shop.

By time it got to Dalvey there were three suicides.

The mechanic in Cheswick heard and gave his woman

a fine trashing; but, to her credit, she nearly scratched his heart

out his chest during the howl and leather smithing.

My World - Anonymous

Say goodbye to our courtyard.

Tomorrow we’re setting out on the road,

leaving our little courtyard to be demolished.

Only the dog walkers will survive - Oral Arukenova

zhanna’s gonna crash

kurban’s gonna snap

anel’s got a bruise

that fits right under her mask

The Fish Market in Athens - Ivan Theofilov

In the cheerful narrow backstreets

with shops of advertisingly confessive mood

along the motley swarming crowds

where oriental customs reign,

here they are – a commercial cathedral

Sonnet X - Carlo Maggi

Soul, by thy deep demerit sore distressed, 

Dear to thy Lord — ah! why by woe subdued? 

He asks thy love: — but thou wouldst love exclude 

For love must fail, if hope forsake the breast! 

Datur Hora Quieti - Sir Walter Scott

The sun upon the lake is low,

The wild birds hush their song,

The hills have evening’s deepest glow,

Yet Leonard tarries long.

To Italy - Luigi Alamanni

Thanks be to God, my feet are now addressed,

Proud Italy, at least to visit thee,

After six weary years, since destiny

Forbids me in thy dear-loved lap to rest.

Letter to my Unborn Child - Batsirai E. Chigama

Child

When I get the courage

When I am ready and brave

To bring you in a world

With too many clenched fists

Too many open palms

Too many potholes

And Z.E.S.Aless nights

Too many frolicking leaders

I want to make sure

You are strong and ready

The Sea has its Transformations ... Make Way - Qassim Haddad

Whoever saw a sea so narrow

narrow narrow

like the pupil of an eye

I mean - who

I have seen

and it's narrowing still

hardly space enough for the sputter of a strange gull

small fish can find no space in which to make a turn

Good Sense - Xasan Sheekh Muumin

The ostrich places

Her young in the open

Where the hawk kills

But the small bird marries

And beds her young

In a nest that's safe

Sunset - Amin Kassam

warm scent

lingers

to mark his passage

through

leaves and flowers

Shaken but not shattered - Sirbestian Nzula

The devil is a liar

He will attack your soul

Your soul will be on fire

Let Christ take control

Now Do not Tell Me of Men! - Müesser Yeniay

My soul hurts so much that

I awaken the stones under the earth

 

Juan Sánchez Peláez - Vicente Gerbasi

The eyes of the owl 

closed on the plain 

of death 

Poison - Kinga Fabó

I don’t know what it is but very ill-

intended. Surely a woman must belong to it.

And something like a laughter.

To the Lost - Dvora Amir

They came at the close of autumn, Moslem refugees from Bosnia

given shelter in this country, in the house next door, by a Yugoslav woman in Baka.

A Zipper - Nikolina Andova Šopova

Like when you are zipping

a broken zipper

You slide it, and it persistently opens

Autumn Afternoon - Željana Vukanac

The light of the last sun

elongates the faces of labour in the tin wheels

King of the hosts - Pope Urban VIII

King of the hosts of heavenly birth, 

Thou Son, Redeemer of the earth, 

And Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, 

Bring to our souls thy solace sweet. 

Who Deserves Respect? - Jean-Baptiste Nau

He whose hands are ever engaged,

And who seeks what's true and right,

Who lives from his own work's wage,

Not from other people's plight.

Laughing Drums - David Amadu

History’s white hand wrote my country’s course

In a language that will come back and hunt her

In the twenty first century;

World Peace - Xanana Gusmão

Violence, death

Blood and tears