Potato Thief - Pentti Saarikoski

The year was as long and dark as a bed,

I slept between two winds;

the bush was filling with black berries.

A poem for Zimbabwe - Chenjerai Hove

i am the only one

you are the only one.

Calendar of an Invisible April - Odysseus Elytis

“The wind was whistling continuously, it was

getting darker, and that distant voice was

incessantly reaching my ears : “an entire life”…

“an entire life”…

A Naughty Game - Indah Widiastuti

An afternoon delight gleaming in

the corners of my eyes, made me

feel beautiful and entitled a right

to allure the slanting sun.

Listen Compatriots! - Nontsizi Mgqwetho

Peace, Nintsizi, renowned for you chanting,

your poems are the nation's bounty.

No elephant finds its own trunk clumsy.

Oh peace, hen of Africa with sheltering wing!

To New York - Léopold Sédar Senghor

– I –

New York! At first I was bewildered by your beauty,

Those huge, long-legged, golden girls.

So shy, at first, before your blue metallic eyes and icy smile,

So shy. And full of despair at the end of skyscraper streets

Raising my owl eyes at the eclipse of the sun.

My First Love - Chioniso Tsikisayi

Hie, Jesus

Sometimes I can’t get my thoughts to flow coherently when I pray.

So I figured that it would be better to

translate my feelings into writing.

This is my love letter to you❤

nielles - Laruent Fels

stone of clay

in the void

of sands

Garden - Andreas Okopenko

Deep garden

of dark-green leaves

they come from the ground

and are moist.

Nyeri - Beatrice Lamwaka

I almost became that man’s second wife

I twisted my underwear here and there

I hynoptised myself that he was the one

I always thought of him.

The Empty Sky - Ágnes Nemes Nagy

The empty sky. The empty sky.

I can't tell what might satisfy.

His Majesty - Tembong Denis Fonge

The ever shining star

Of the greatest royal rocks of Nkongho,

Where always you stood tall,

His majesty Tazanu njung-efuellah.

You are the rose of Sharon,

And the lily of the valleys.

As the lily among thorns,

So is your love for your daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of wood,

So is your care among your sons.

From Day to Night - Dahlia Ravikovitch

Every day I rise from sleep again

as if for the last time.

The Earth's Attraction - Yannis Ritsos

A moon glued to the windowpane like a cancelled postage stamp

on a letter undelivered. The closed furniture shop filled

with tables, armchairs, mirrors. A lone dog frightened by its own shadow

The Disappeared - Margarita Serafimova

We are roots,

we are the unknown earth’s own,

we spread out in the eyeballs of the killers,

we are their blood vessels.

Sky-scalers—madcaps—with wine-wetted dresses - Abdallah Nihauni

Summer yet lingers, yet blushes and blesses,

Dazzling the dells with her sunbeamy tresses:

Here let us revel, defying excesses.

SKY-SCALERS—MADCAPS—WITH WINE-WETTED DRESSES!

Greek Chorus Hears Medusa Doing Zumba - Rayji de Guia

​Did you hear mga dear Medusa

attends Zumba na? Left Mixxedfit

a misfit, tits slipping through the fit of her slip.

Dear Christ we crave thy favour - Magnus Felix Ennodius

Dear Christ we crave thy favour, 

To guide our steps aright; 

O, hear our tearful voices, 

Be with us through the night. 

Messages - Kofi Awoonor

On time's lap sat simmering

burnt on lost hearths' desires,

tasks fulfilled not fulfilled

An old woman who was considered beautiful (Sonnet 1) - Diego Hurtado de Mendoza

     You have, Mistress Aldonza, three times thirty years,

three strands of hair, no more, and just one tooth,

breasts more fitting for a grasshopper,

where spiderwebs and scratches abound.

Circling Zero - Ana Ristovic

We are independent women.

We breathe asthmatically

while waiting for new love. We pop pills

of unfulfilled promises. We drown in murky dreams.

Twenty-four hours a day we painfully make love

to a migraine and forgive her

because she is female.

 

What our dead can do - Zbigniew Herbert

Jan came this morning

—I dreamt of my father

he says

Lessons for Young Women - Frances-Marie Coke

Proper English words were not enough

to teach the serious lessons girls must learn.

Solaua, a secret embryo - Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche

She can smell

Cowdung in the mist of

Solaua, where her heart

Is suspended

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness - Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

my beauty are, my glorious dress;

'midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

with joy shall I lift up my head.

If You Could - Assamala Amoi

If you could leave when work was done

Like the sun at the end of its day;

Spreading My Wings - Magie Faure-Vidot

I am the captain of my own destiny

One humble and tiny

However over the oceans I spread my wings

And in the ball-room I practise the best swings

The Hometown Girl - Lisímaco Chavarría

The young campesino returned to his humble home

in the evening, tools in one hand,

a bouquet of wildflowers in the other

—a small offering for his beautiful girl

A March Invocation - Ivan Laučík

Let the snow speak out

in the needles of pine

what is again an embrace ...