Homesick - Elna Ratabwiy

I remember Nauru

Where the sun was shimmering

on the waves 

Charles Mingus Egg Nog Recipe - Mona Kareem

Separate one egg for one person. Each person gets an egg.

Two sugars for each egg, each person.

Pearls - Ahmed Sheik Koya

A pearl is not found in every oyster 

Only ones that endure a grit that comes to fester

Slowly its lacquered and covered with shiny plaster

It takes grit and time and no way to do it faster

And the grit is the start of the pearl of luster

The way ahead - Konai Helu Thaman

we cannot see

far into the distance

neither can we see

what used to stand there

Prescription - Emma Kruse Va’ai

Gather some sunshine

and warm rain,

one cicada

and a pocket of air from your kitchen.

Blood Sunday - Kithaka wa Mberia

I 

Beats of Reggae

Roar/rumble in the air

And get mixed

With sunrise

 

Prelude to hope - Vicente Huidobro

You sing and sing you talk and talk

And roll on through time

And weep like a wild lily

In unison of spires uprearing - Jan Křesadlo

In unison of spires uprearing

Below, the River's low pedal bass

To some she tastes of wine, light, cheering

To some of bile, and vinegar, base.

The Husband - Adela Zamudio

Thirsting in the desert of ambition,

in search of recognition he holds dear,

a man stands at the threshold of glory;

The foolishness of sacrifice - Rāmprasād Sen

Mind, why art thou so anxious? 

Utter Kālī’s name, and sit in meditation 

From all this pomp of worship the mind grows proud 

Worship her in secret, that none may know 

What is thy gam from images of metal, stone or earth? 

Bola - Elis Juliana

In that crystal ball of mine

I see the things in store for me.

The toad is singing in my ears

a song of troubling misery.

What If My Blood Sweetened Into Chocolate - Sawsan Al-Areeqe

What if

time cast its candle into a pit of winds

And night extended beyond the brow

And wearily the sea hugged the shore

And light faltered during the celebrations

And I embraced a man’s shadow

Dawn is a fisherman - Raymond Barrow

Dawn is a fisherman, his harpoon of light

Poised for the throw—so swiftly morning comes:

The darkness squats upon the sleeping land

Like a flung cast-net and the black shapes of boats

Lie hunched like nestling turtles

On the flat calm of the sea.

Family Trees - Craig Santos Perez

1

Before we enter the jungle, my dad

asks permission of the spirits who dwell

within. He walks slowly, with care,

Dance Lessons (3/4 time) - Diana Anphimiadi

Like an ice-sheet

in the Antarctic

broken, then joined,

go foot to foot

as if finding, or

at least as if searching.

New Year - Hanna Anuar

I danced away my first few hours

of this new decade

Violent Love - Harriet Anena

We love violently

Cry and kiss at the same time

As our chests heave with want and hesitation

Yellow One - Thomas Mofolo

Yellow one from the house of Mothebele, rise,

Yellow One, mighty faun giant,

To the City of London - William Dunbar

London, thou art of townes A per se.

    Soveraign of cities, semeliest in sight,

Of high renoun, riches, and royaltie;

Zebu - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

Arched like the towns of Imerina

prominent on the hills,

or hewn from the living rock;

humped like the gables

sculpted by the moon on the earth,

look! The powerful bull—

No illness but this place - Rajab Hamad Buhwaish al-Minifi

I have no illness but this place of Egaila,           

the imprisonment of my tribe

and separation from my kin’s abode.

Africa, Wake up - Amos Momo Ngumbu

Africa, Africa,

Africa Wake up, wake up,

Your time of success is coming,

The future awaits you.

the statistics of poetry - Fokkina McDonnell

​I bought it for 5 Euro in De Bijenkorf,

this Rijmhandboek: practical guide

for the writing of poems and small songs

A Trip To Heaven - Charles Chuze Kayeyi

I took a trip to heaven

But only in my mind

I wanted to know what it's like

To leave all you love behind.

The Poem And The Butterfly - Mihail Rendžov

Find

But a crumb of light

And make a butterfly.

if the end is the middle I’m here - Edvīns Raups

if the end is the middle I’m here Cook up

something transitory for me Nothing

lost yet the stalactite spirits

Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 128-191) - Joost van den Vondel

Gabriel:

Lord Stadtholder, how? Whither bound?

Lucifer:

To thee,

O Herald and Interpreter of Heaven.

The Renunciation - Ayodhya Bandara Perera

He thinks she’s asleep,

As He tiptoes towards their divan.

Gently moving the gossamer curtain that separates the two of them,

five New Year haiku - Masaoka Shiki

New Year's greetings

with a plum branch

in hand

Epigram - Rui Knopfli

Your lips, I tell you, are not as sweet

as honey.

The Passing of the Year - Robert Service

My glass is filled, my pipe is lit,

My den is all a cosy glow;

And snug before the fire I sit,

And wait to feel the old year go.