The Spiral - Bruce Levitan

The Muslims lived here long ago

And the Jews did too. O, woe!

Two blackbirds - Bessiki

Two blackbirds sitting in a cage chant melody

With soothing sounds that tremble on the fragrant air

In numbers soft that swell in music sweet and sad,

Filling the bower with love and purest harmony.

The Holy War - Althea Gyles

We fight for Peace—not for Revenge or Hate,

Forgetful of the names of Fame or Fate—

Song Of Natela - Akaki Tsereteli

I gently strung my chonguri,

And tuned its chords with softness low,

Till every string rang harmony…

Odela-dela-delao!

The Gold Horns - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

Upon the pages

Of the olden ages,

And in hills where are lying

The dead, they are prying;

On armour rusty,

In ruins musty,

On Rune-stones jumbled,

With bones long crumbled.

From dust the Holy God created thee (Door IV.I: Humility) - Saadi Shirazi

From dust the Holy God created thee, 

Servant of God, then, dustlike lowly be, 

From envy, pride, and worldliness abstain, 

Earth is thy origin — be not like flame;

The Song of the Birds - Anonymous

In seeing emerge

The greatest light

During the most celebrated of nights,

The little birds sing.

They go to celebrate Him

With their delicate voices.

The Birds of Passage - Erik Johan Stagnelius

Behold! the birds fly 

From Gauthiod’s strand, 

And seek with a sigh 

Some far foreign land. 

My native land - Lydia Koidula

My native land they buried you 

Beneath an ebon cover, 

And blooms of blood on wounded soil 

Were all they could discover. 

Refugee - Valsa George

From the dark arenas of violence,

From the shackles of oppression,

From a land reeking of the smell of blood

They flee, bloodied and bruised.

Let the honour of thy pupil be as dear - Rabbi Eleazar

Let the honour of thy pupil be as dear to thee as that of thy colleague; 

that of thy colleague, as the reverence of thy master; 

and the reverence of thy master, as that of the Most High.

---

Rabbi Eleazar [Eleazar ben Shammua or Eleazar I] (2nd Century) Israel

Translator not stated

Source: Jewish Encyclopedia

Indian Ocean Ode - Luís Carlos Patraquim

robber of the wind and the fragile

Indian Ocean lines that spurt

in clear partying / with my blood

I scarf what I can / untameable

geometry of caves in this

Journey into night - Degutyte Janina

My sister told me, "You are not my brother."

My brother told me, "You are not my brother."

Where can I find a sister - where, a brother.

Who am, to sister and to brother, alien?

Oh, Sing with Exultation - Anders Arrebo

Oh, sing with exultation,

Sing to the Lord, rejoice,

And in His congregation

Shout with triumphant voice.

The Dark Palace - Alice Milligan

There beams no light from thy hall to-night,

                                     Oh, House of Fame;

No mead-vat seethes and no smoke upwreathes

                                     O’er the hearth’s red flame;

Pythia 7 - Pindar

The great city of Athens is the loveliest

invocation, to cast down as foundation stone for the song

to magnify the wide-flung strength of the sons of Alkmaion, and their victory with horses.

What country could you live in? what habitation? 

and name one more conspicuous for all Hellas to attend.

Sudsakorn (from Phra Aphai Mani) - Sunthorn Phu

Do not trust others, he said:                     

be afraid of the human mind.

A royal epitaph - Eshmunazar II

I have departed hence,

And am no more forever.

Like the day I vanished,

Hath my spirit faded from the world,

And my voice

Ceased from sounding in the ears of men.

Boomerang - Rex Ingamells

This piece of hardwood, cunningly shaped,

was curved so evenly while piccaninnies gaped

at a Warrior who chipped at it with pieces of flint,

A Swimmer Is A Horseman - Paul Snoek

Swimming is licentiously sleeping in sprawling water.

is making love with each still operable pore

is endlessly being free and inwardly triumphing.

Love's Autumn - T-Ö Erdenetsogt

aripple ripple aripple

love’s autumn meets with us, and

in song song in song

you come to us with memory’s recollection

The Lily Of The Valley - Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom

O'er hill and dale the welcome news is flying

That summer's drawing near;

Out of my thicket cool, my cranny hidden,

Around I shyly peer.

One Gentle Evening Suave - Rachel Bluwstein

One gentle evening suave, I'll go

Outside and immobile,

Not speaking to a single soul,

I'll sit awhile.

Autumn - Pavlo Tychyna

Fungus grows on the cultures of the world.

Autumn. In the cities by four o'clock street

lights come on.

Women - Anna Blaman

I

Her arms smooth and clear-skinned in the shadow

of dark tulle, amply perfumed and lips

of carmine-red—I see the tips

of her breasts heave coming and going.

Christ In The Corn - Ole Sarvig

I saw the corn last night,

the dreaming corn,

the corn and ears of all mankind ever

in these fields.

Here lay Leningraders - Olga Berggolts

Here are city dwellers, men, women, and children

Next to them, Red Army soldiers.

Advent Credo - Allan Boesak

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—

This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

Were he my child - Ukoo

Were he my child,

He should not accompany you,

This night of snow!

A Plough And A Spade - Nguyen Trai

A plough and a spade, that's all.

A row of chrysanthemums, and orchids,

A place to plant beans: That's all I need.

He makes the Eagles and Ocelots dance with him! - Nezahualcoyotl

He makes the Eagles and Ocelots dance with him!

Come to see the Huexotzinca:

Nothing but a man - Nadia Tueni

Nothing but a man

let's execute him against the door.

Now, a new creature - Jacopone da Todi

Now, a new creature, I in Christ am born,

     The old man stripped away; — I am new-made;

The Night You Went Away - José María Contursi

Sometimes,

when your face appears in my dreams,

fleeting and radiant as a ray of sunlight,

I feel as though your hands warm mine

as they shiver with cold, and you declare your love!

Existence - Fadwa Tuqan

In life, I was a question without home;

      In the enfolding darkness,

      My answer was concealed.

At 84 - Sophie N. Bamwoyeraki

Your teeth have fled their nest. 

Dust rules over the Holy Book. 

Untouched buttons of your radio look on. 

Songs unsung - Migjeni

Deep within me sleep songs unsung,

Which neither suffering nor joy have yet brought forth,

Which sleep on awaiting a happier day

To burst out and be sung without fear or grief.

The Tyrian Landscape - Nonnus of Panopolis

Furrows the calm main

The Tyrian sailor with his oar,

And the ploughman, the green soil

By the sylvan shore.

The National Song - Kudirka Vincas

Lithuania, our dear homeland,

Land of worthy heroes,

May your sons draw strength and vigour

From your past experience.

My Song for Today - Thérèse of Lisieux

My life is an instant, an hour passing by.

My life is but a day escaping and fleeing.

You know well, O my god! to love you on this earth

I only have today.

Man and Earth - Hayat Saif

All around one can witness

Many high-ranking and garrulous asses –

Occasionally worthy, but always affecting wisdom –

Here, these clamorous men live.

Shy Request - Csokonai Vitéz Mihály

Mighty love's consuming fire

Has most deeply scorched my soul.

Cooling balm for hot desire,

Gracious tulip, make me whole.

May Gives Itself With Sweet Abandon - Lucian Blaga

We shall remember once, too late,

This simple happening, so fine,

This very bench where we are seated,

Your burning temple next to mine.

Before Exile - Louise Mack

Here is my last good-bye,  

 This side the sea.  

Good-bye! good-bye! good-bye!  

 Love me, remember me.  

 

We Want Land - George Cosbuc

Hungry and naked and without a home am I.

My shoulders, you have charged them with loads,

And you spit at me, and you have beaten me,

And I have been to you a dog.

A blind man - Ikmal Idham

A blind man stood static

Every direction to him was the same

Uncertain, unknown

Black

Where are the tidings of union? - Hafez

Where are the tidings of union? that I may arise —

Forth from the dust I will rise up to welcome thee!

My soul, like a homing bird, yearning for Paradise,

Shall arise and soar, from the snares of the world set free.

Lament to the Spirit of War - Enheduanna

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings

you rush to destroy our land:

raging like thunderstorms,

howling like hurricanes,

screaming like tempests,

thundering, raging, ranting, drumming,

whiplashing whirlwinds!

Abe no Nakamaro - Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

When I look abroad

O'er the wide-stretched "Plain of Heaven,"

Boy And Squirrel - Juliana Horatia Ewing

Oh boy, down there, I can't believe that what they say is true!

We squirrels surely cannot have an enemy in you;

We have so much in common, my dear friend, it seems to me

That I can really feel for you, and you can feel for me.

One drop of blood - Aistis Jonas

One drop of blood would have cleansed you,

          But in your misery you missed it,

And though we drew our strength from the old times -

          Our promises remained unfulfilled...

What Is A Poet's Soul Like - Ivan Vazov

A tight and chiming string

that resounds to anything—

Faith in God Amist Disasters (Sonnet XVII) - Vincenzo da Filicaja

Deaf to those flattering zephyrs from the strand, 

My fragile skiff with cautious foot I steer'd, 

And, softest gales distrusting as they veer'd, 

With this oar touch'd the wave, with that the sand.

Ribs - Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné

This is not a poem about

the sound of my voice.

Love at my door - Anonymous

Love at my door 

Knocked and I gave him bed. 

When sleep saw this 

He took offence and fled. 

‘Give me back sleep; 

Where has he gone?’ I said. 

To Prague - Frantisek Halas

Ye faint of faith Bone gnawing time

has been her beauty giver

from wailing fields illuminated ever

those muralled texts of portals and of walls

I Recall Your Smile - Eugenio Montale

I recall your smile, and for me it is limpid water

witnessed by chance among the stones of a riverbed.

Panegyric of Madog ab Maredudd - Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr

A Sov'reign Prince will extol, of nine parts is my poem, 

With all the force of numbers nine-nine are its topics, 

A hero 'tis to celebrate, Gogyrfan's like in stature. 

In The Bloom Of His Youth - At The Height Of Summer - Uuno Kailas

How wonderful to be lolling about here.

Spreading one's limbs on the palm of a rock's hand.

In the nude.

Asking for Blessing - Anonymous (traditional Gikuyu tribal prayer)

Say ye, the elders may have wisdom and speak with one voice.

Praise ye Ngai. Peace be with us.

I think of your hands as gills inside the sea - Luís Carlos Patraquim

I think of your hands as gills inside the sea

your hands that breathe sounds

and I think I’m within a shoal of moving fish

What have you done with your blue look? - Hulda Dagny Lütken

What have you done with your blue look?

Once your eyes were like the sky.

Fair Ladies are Delicate Things - Dugald Buchanan

                    [1.]

Fair Ladies are Delicate Things

The Pleasure and Joy of Man’s Life

Companions for Nobles & Kings

And who would not have a Good Wife¹

black majesty - Luis Pales Matos

Through the fiery Antillean street

Va Tembandumba de la Quimbamba

—Rumba, macumba, candombe, bambula—

Between two rows of black faces.

Spiritual Song Of The Aborigine - Hyllus Noel Maris

I am a child of the Dreamtime People

Part of this land, like the gnarled gumtree

I am the river, softly singing

Chanting our songs on my way to the sea

October Sky - Tadeusz Borowski

October was beautiful. As if it were yesterday I remember

the strangely clear, strangely deep sky

shimmering in the noon heat as a leaf shimmers in the wind,

empty and unreachable. I am oddly melancholy

telling you about this, for what do words mean?

Lao-Tze - Anonymous

1.
Back in the depths of ancient time;
Remote, before the Tis began;
Four equal sides denned the earth,

Il-Kantilena - Pietru Caxaro

Witness my predicament, my friends (neighbours), as I shall relate it to you:

[What] never has there been, neither in the past, nor in your lifetime,

A [similar] heart, ungoverned, without lord or king (sultan),

Anacreontic - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft

Three long years have o'erwhelmed me in sadness,

Since the sun veiled his vision of gladness:

Sorrow be banished,— for sorrow is dreary;

Sorrow and gloom but outweary the weary.

In my heart I perceive the day breaking;

I cannot resist its awaking.

Spinning Song III - Elena Văcărescu

What hath he done, the luckless fellow,

     That thou wilt speak to him no more;

     Are ye not of the self-same village?

Strive to discover the mystery - Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār

Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.

Homeland - Salomėja Nėris

Despoiled and blood-drenched by the foe

You rise before my eyes.

Many a hundred miles I'll go

To see your stirring skies.

The Eleventh Sonnet to Beauty - Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero

O ripe bosom white that steadily before mine eyes

So dearly drifts, like the clear reflection

At the source of the Rhine of the purest snow —

Ah but your shimmering, o weak eyes doth impair!

Old Trees - Olavo Bilac

Look at these old trees, more lovely these

Than younger trees, more friendly too by far:

More beautiful the older that they are,

Victorious over age and stormy seas ...

Victim Number 18 - Mahmoud Darwish

Once the olive grove was green.

It was, and the sky

A grove of blue. It was my love.

What changed that evening?

The diameter of the bomb - Yehuda Amichai

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters

and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,

with four dead and eleven wounded.

Song Of The Bells - Yakub Kolas

Silver-copper booming clamour,

In the belfry, bells are ringing.

In the dawnlight, bells are ringing,

In the twilight's shining pallor.

Daniel’s song - Mihaly Babits

Despite all Thou hast remembered me, God,

and Thou hast found all those who have long been

in search of Thee and all those who love Thee.

First Night - Zinaida Lazda

The soldier under earth shall joy in night -

A long good night!

The Words of the Wise are Few - Sakya Pandita

Of all the lands where mighty forests grow, 

But few that bear the sandalwood I know; 

Love in Old Age - Paulus Silentiarius

Let others boast of charms divine,

The agile step and graceful air; 

More lovely is thy wrinkled face,

And threads of silver in thy hair.

Old Courtesan’s Lament - Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Faces, faces, faces—

Why do ye turn away?

Young and old,

Why will ye not gaze into my face?

The Syrian Lover in Exile Remembers Thee, Light of My Land - Ajan Syrian

Rose and amber was the sunset on the river,

Red-rose the hills about Bingariz.

High upon their brows, the black tree-branches

Spread wide across the turquoise sky.

The Magnolia - José Santos Chocano

Deep in the wood, of scent and song the daughter,

Perfect and bright is the magnolia born;

White as a flake of foam upon still water,

White as soft fleece upon rough brambles torn.

Echo of Another Sonata - Enrique Lihn

                In your opinion one love erases another

and so it is, dear, yet in love not everything

belongs to the dart and quiver—

The Heron Chase - Anastasius Grün

When spring again encircles the earth in her genial embrace,

There rides from the gates of Bruges a party for the chase;

Full many handsome falconers on shapely coursers ride,

And withal the beautiful duchess by her loving husband’s side.

The Desolate Star - Robin Hyde

Little winds of dawn come gently to them,

All the living stars, the other stars.

My Husband's Tongue is Bitter (Song of Lawino - I) - Okot p' Bitek

Husband, now you despise me

Now you treat me with spite

find say I have inherited the stupidity of my aunt;

Aurora - D.A.M. Binnendijk

The night's metaphorical secret

Imbues me with but not a single rhyme

But it awakens the birds out of their nests

The Alien - Bishnu Dey

On either side the woods, in the middle the road

Gleamingly goes winding as nature beats the tune.

Coarse the rush-mat roof - Tenchi Tenno

Coarse the rush-mat roof

Sheltering the harvest-hut

The Steam King - Edward P. Mead

There is a King, and a ruthless King;

Not a King of the poet’s dream;

But a tyrant fell, white slaves know well,

And that ruthless King is Steam.

The Keening Of The Reed - Qassim Haddad

He put his paw in the lake

like one dipping a quill in a well of words…

He wasn't of reed,

nor has Love a thing to grant:

Among beasts there is no wolf worthy of the loneliness

An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion - Yehuda Amichai

An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion

And on the opposite hill I am searching for my little boy.

Yesterday - Bruce Levitan

These grey skies stretch like dirty washing

Enclosing the trampled ground,

Itself endlessly grey with rubble and detritus.

The Waif - A. C. Smith

He went into the bush, and passed

Out of the sight of living men,

None knows the nook that held him last,

None ever saw his face again.

You came to lean on a leaf from my body - Emilio Adolfo Westphalen

You came to lean on a leaf from my body

Sweet and heavy drop like the sun over our lives

You brought the scent of wood and the tenderness of a leaning stalk

Jaafer Ben Alba - On the Battle of Sabla

Sabla, thou saw'st th' exulting foe

In fancied triumphs crown'd; 

Thou heard'st their frantic females throw

These galling taunts around:

Lord Jesus, give me shelter - Lina Sandell

Lord Jesus, give me shelter,

hide me beneath your wings.

You are my safe protection;

to you my spirit sings.

Amin Kassam - Strangers Forever

Each of us 

is a passenger 

seated in one huge 

compartment 

African Thunderstorm - David Rubadiri

From the west

Clouds come hurrying with the wind

Turning sharply

Here and there

Epigram 9.312 - Diodorus Zonas

Refrain, sirrah, from cutting the oak, 

the mother of acorns; 

Draupadî's Remonstrance (The Hunter and the Hero - Book I) - Bhāravi

Sent in hermit's guise to spy

How Kuru's monarch ruled his men, 

A forester, his task performed,

Yudhishthir met in Dvaita's glen. 

Prometheus Unbound, 716-818 - Aeschylus

Well, since you are bent on this,
I will not refuse to proclaim all that you still crave to know.
First, to you, Io, will I declare your much-vexed wandering,
and may you engrave it on the recording tablets of your mind.

The Emmigrant's Adieu to Ballyshannon - William Allingham

Adieu to Ballyshannon! where I was bred and born; 

Go where I may, I'll think of you, as sure as night and morn; 

The kindly spot, the friendly town, where every one is known, 

And not a face in all the place but partly seems my own. 

There 's not a house or window, there 's not a field or hill, 

But, east or west, in foreign lands, I'll recollect them still. 

I leave my warm heart with you, though my back I'm forced to turn, — 

So adieu to Ballyshannon, and the winding banks of Erne! 

Compassionate, You are the most merciful - Si Mohand ou-Mhand

Compassionate, You are the most merciful

Glory to You the Almighty

Master of countless crowds

Close to Your Heart - José María Contursi

What a horrible night I’ve had!

Everything in my room is cold.

I owe it all to you, my love:

despair and weariness.

Like The Sun's Uprising Light - Burkhart of Hohenfels

Like the sun's uprising light

Shines that maid, before whom fade

Other charms, however bright;

As the stars at break of day,

Late so brilliant fade away.

The Rainbow's End - Google Bard

The water falls, a thousand flecks of light,

And through the spray the rainbow's arch is thrown,

A bridge of colour spanning heaven and night,

A promise of the sun beyond the stone.

Song - Cahit Külebi

Your lips are red

Your hands are white

Take my hands, child,

Hold them a while.

The Girls of Llanbadarn - Dafydd ap Gwilym

I bow before this passion;

a plague on the parish girls!

Because, o force of longing,

I've never had one of thern!

Bosongo’s Dark Alleys - Onchoka Ongoro

That morning, as I walked to work

A lady who aired her wares in Bosongo’s dark alleys smiled at me

Into the depths (Jingika book of the Senzaishū, SZS XX: 1278) - Priest En'i

Into the depths

I traversed the

Road of the kami,

Let My Shadow Disappear Into Yours - Par Lagerkvist

Let my shadow disappear into yours.

I found it - Fadwa Tuqan

I found it on a beautiful, sunny day.

I found it after great loss:

Fresh verdant soil,

Wet and flourishing.

I hate you - I love you - Vazha Pshavela

I hate you because, why are you powerless 

with strong arm and weeping face 

and your fate, fate black fate 

why shrouded always in black? 

Why an introduction, since you are within me - Mahadevi Verma

Why an introduction dear, you are within me,

    reflections on starry nights, memories of a life,

creations of life in short spells, eyes notice

    creations of life in short spells, eyes notice gentle footsteps!

Take Your Gun - Jacob Bronowski

Man, take your gun: and put to shame

earthquake and plague, the acts of God.

You maim the crazy and the lame.

The earth does not get fat - Anonymous Ngoni tribesman

The earth does not get fat. It makes an end of those who wear the head plumes*

We shall die on the earth.

The earth does not get fat. It makes an end of those who act swiftly as heroes.

Shall we die on the earth?

Scheme - Takis Papatsonis

There is no brighter thing than Truth.

Do you search with love and madness to find her?

Is your research fruitful like the Night,

knowing for sure that the Sun will burst pompously?

The Dance - Siamanto

In a field of cinders where Armenian life was still dying,

a German woman,

trying not to cry

told me the horror she witnessed:

Purgatory - Lynn Mugisha

HB: “I suffer because I imagine the two of us, I suffer because that’s the most I can do.”

MG: “Suffering feels religious only if you do it right.”

Like making a church out of this body.

Placing this rib aside,

making an exorcism of all the reasons not to.

Midday and the Cold Sleep - Bhupi Sherchan

In the newspaper's "wanted" column,

I seek the face of my future,

I search for a foothold in every procession,

To a tropic reef - Hugh Fuller

Oh, murmuring reef

Changing while yet unchanged,

No earthly power can ‘ere erase

The jagged contours of your face;

You Changeless One, Whom Nothing Changes - Søren Kierkegaard

You Changeless One, whom nothing changes!

On the Tomb of Sayid - Abd Almalec Alharithy

Lest are the tenants of the tomb!

With envy I their lot survey;

For SAYID shares the solemn gloom,

And mingles with their mouldering clay.

 

The Horizon (A conversation between a child and its mother) - Frans Michael Franzén

"See! where to earth bends down the sky! 

See how the morning clouds up-roIlcd 

Tinge the far forest with their gold. 

And we delay — both thou and I, 

To go to heaven, my mother dear, 

When every day it is ho near."

Cha Till Maccruimein (Departure of the 4th Camerons) - Ewart Alan Mackintosh

The pipes in the streets were playing bravely,

⁠The marching lads went by,

With merry hearts and voices singing

⁠My friends marched out to die;

Sonnet I - Fernando Pessoa

Whether we write or speak or do but look

We are ever unapparent. What we are

Cannot be transfused into word or book.

Ripened Fruit - Thomas O'Hagan

I know not what my heart hath lost;

  I cannot strike the chords of old,

The breath that charmed my morning life

  Hath chilled each leaf within the wold.

Lament IV - Jan Kochanowski

Thou hast constrained mine eyes, unholy Death,

To watch my dear child breathe her dying breath:

To watch thee shake the fruit unripe and clinging

While fear and grief her parents' hearts were wringing.

Self-Portrait as a Silk Purse - Patrick Cotter

On this shelf lies a small gathering of heirlooms

from four generations. I am the oldest.

Too tiny ever to have held a fortune, my insides

Bearslayer: Canto I - Bearslayer's destiny is revealed by Perkons (Scene 2) - Andrejs Pumpurs

Staburadze tells of a wonder

These vows the Council brought now to its close-

Their homeward paths the gods departing sought.

The Lusiad (extract from Book I: Sailing to Mombasa) - Luís Vas de Camões

Between the isle and Ethiopia's land

A narrow current laves each adverse strand;

Close by the margin where the green tide flows,

Full to the bay a lordly city rose;

A Poet Looks At The Moon - Chang Jo Hsu

I hear a woman singing in my garden,

But I look at the moon in spite of her.

Skirnismol (The Ballad of Skirnir) - Snorri Sturluson

Freyr, the son of Njorth, had sat one day in Hlithskjolf, and looked over all the worlds. He looked into Jotunheim, and saw there a fair maiden, as she went from her father's house to her bower. Forthwith he felt a mighty love-sickness. Skirnir was the name of Freyr's servant; Njorth bade him ask speech of Freyr. He said:

"Go now, Skirnir! and seek to gain

Speech from my son; 

And answer to win, for whom the wise one 

Is mightily moved."

I Will Not Hurry - Ralph Spaulding Cushman

I will not hurry through this day!

Lord, I will listen by the way,

Switzerland - Anastasius Grün

From a lofty Alpine summit look down upon this land,

It lies there like a volume all written by God’s hand;

The mountains are the letters, as leaves the fields unroll,

Saint Gothard is only an asterisk in this gigantic scroll.

The Musical Ass - Tomás Iriarte

The fable which I now present

Occurr’d to me by accident;

And whether bad or excellent,

Is merely so by accident.

Sonnet XXIV: Do not reproach me, ladies - Louise Labé

Do not reproach me, ladies, if I’ve loved,

if I have felt a thousand torches’ fires,

a thousand ills, a thousand fierce desires,

Dragonfly catcher - Fukuda Chiyo-ni

Dragonfly catcher,

How far have you gone today

In your wandering?

The Poem of the Universe - Śrî Ānanda Āchārya

In my soul is the Light and the Life and the Word.

I am the pilgrim and the path and the goal.

Work of Art - Bernadette Chikapa

Do painters’ fingers tingle with that rush

When their thumb and index holds not the brush?

Do they too feel that longing deep inside

When their empty canvas hurts their pride?

Est Virgo Coeli Rore - John Mauburne

Over Mary's soul so tender, 

Falls heaven's holiest dew; 

Her peer in grace and splendor 

Creation never knew; 

The Arrabida Convent - Francisco Manuel de Melo

Falter not, pilgrim here! with steady steps

Upward along this dark-o’ershadowed path

Bliss - Viplob Pratik

rosy breeze in the air,

silky dew in my heart

milky rays from the moon

in my room

and, i feel like i am wrapped in the rainbow.

Great Riches Do Not Fill the Heart (from Ibonia: Conception and Birth, part 1) - Anonymous

The Prince of the East, they say,

     was stirred to pay a visit to Skyfather.

He took his children with him:

Gray-Eyed Man, Young-Man-Worth-Six, Princess Like-a-Man,

     and his subjects, Many Cares and Many Close Ones.

The perfect night - Dorji Thangzom

The spotted lights I see 

on the valleys beyond,

calls for me every night I feel 

alone and exhausted

and also reminds me that 

indeed life is beautiful!

Spring - Abay Kunanbayev

Spring came and melted the snow and ice.

The earth was covered in soft velvet.

Freed from winter's hibernation and heartache

all that lives clings with its heart to warmth and light.

Sport Türkmenistan - Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

Here is a poem of flowers and trees

Here is a music of mountains and sea

Beautiful sides of rivers and sky

All other beauties in Turkmenistan!

 

How are You at once the source of fire - Symeon the New Theologian

How are You at once the source of fire,

how also the fountain of dew?

How at once burning and sweetness,

how a remedy for all disease?

Listen, Khavar (His Wife) - Samad Vurghun

If death should take his place at the head of my bed,

Like an executioner, scythe in right hand,

You, my beloved one, do not grieve-instead

Don't look upon with horror, boldly stand.

My Dark Eyed One - Alisher Navoi

Come my dark eyed one come and show your kindness,

Weave a nest for yourself, in the depth of my pupils.

Generosity - Rudaki

You killed many, broke the enemy’s courage.

You gave so much, there isn’t one beggar left.

The flying Elephant - Zamir Osorov

It is not a Fan

But this poetry

Pretends to look like an Elephant.

The thunder is a great dragon - Anonymous

The thunder is a great dragon that lives in the water

and flies in the air.

He carries two stones.

Genre-Picture - Jens Peter Jacobsen

Page upon the battlement,

In the distance staring,

On a song of love intent,

Of his love's despairing.

Why do you roam the jungles - Baba Sheikh Farid

Says Farid,

Why do you roam the jungles with thorns pricking your feet?

Love - Edith Södergran

My soul was a light blue dress the color of the sky;

I left it on a rock by the sea

and naked I came to you, looking like a woman.

Lament III - Jan Kochanowski

So, thou hast scorned me, my delight and heir;

Thy father's halls, then, were not broad and fair

Enough for thee to dwell here longer, sweet.

When the tom-tom beats - Jacques Roumain

My heart trembles in the shadows

like a face reflected in troubled water.

Rainforest - Eileen Chong

It is hard to carry these vowels.

Lost in translation—or found.

My namesake, so greatly desired

Beyond the Helplessness Principle - Kacper Bartczak

Something will occur and at once it will be found

among other occurrences I know

that the heaviest dreams are only an illusion

No, Molotov - Tatu Pekkarinen

Finlandia, Finlandia,

that’s where the Ivans were heading again.

When Molotov promised: "Yes, everything will go fine,

tomorrow we'll already be eating ice-cream in Helsinki.”

No Molotov, no Molotov

you told more lies than Bobrikov himself.

 

God Speaks to Man - Edmond Bordeaux Szekely

I speak to you.

Be still

Know

I am

God.

On Procrastination - Hebat Allah ibn Altalmith

Youth is a drunken, noisy hour,

  With every folly fraught;

But man, by Age's chastening power,

  Is sobered into thought.

Summer has come - Anonymous

Summer has come, healthy and free,

Whence the brown wood is aslope;

The slender nimble deer leap,

And the path of seals is smooth.

Song - Theognis of Megara

Muses and Graces! daughters of high Jove, 

When erst you left your glorious seats above 

To bless the bridal of that wondrous pair, 

Cadmus and Harmonia fair, 

Ye chanted forth a divine air: 

To my country - Jens Immanuel Baggesen

Thou spot of earth, where from the breast of woe 

My eye first rose, and in the purple glow 

Of morning, and the dewy smile of love, 

Mark'd the first gleamings of the power above: 

Bright Thoughts for a Dark Day - Pamelia Sarah Yule

Will the shadows be lifted to-morrow? — 

Will the sunshine come ever again? — 

Will the clouds, that are weeping in sorrow,

Their glorious beauty regain? 

Spring, and the sharpness of the golden dawn - Decimius Magnus Ausonius

Spring, and the sharpness of the golden dawn.

Before the sun was up a cooler breeze

Had blown, in promise of a day of heat,

And I was walking in my formal garden,

To freshen me, before the day grew old.

O soothe thy servants' woes, and bring (Placare Christe Servulis) - Rabanus Maurus

O soothe thy servants' woes, and bring 

Our souls to thee, most clement King; 

We seek before thy mercy seat 

The Virgin's intercession sweet. 

Heavenly Questions (Section 1) - Ch`u Yuan

'Tis said:

At the beginning of remote antiquity, 

Who was there to transmit the tale? 

When above and below had not yet taken shape, 

By what means could they be examined?

Man, a tree growing from Brahma - Yajnavalkya

As a tree of the forest, 

Just so, surely, is man. 

His hairs are leaves. 

His skin the outer bark. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh (The story of the Flood) - Anonymous

Gilgamesh spoke to Utanapishtim, the Faraway:

"I have been looking at you,

but your appearance is not strange--you are like me!

On avarice - Hatim al-Tai

How frail are riches and their joys? 

Morn builds the heap which eve destroys; 

Yet can they leave one sure delight 

The thought that we've employ'd them right. 

Odin's Rune Song - Sæmundr Sigfússon

I know that I hung, on a wind-rocked tree, nine whole nights, with a spear wounded, and to Odin offered, myself to myself; on that tree, of which no one knows from what root it springs.

Holy Spirit, come and shine - Hermann Contractus

Holy Spirit, come and shine

Sweetly in this heart of mine,

With Thy heavenly love and light;

Come, Thou Father of the poor,

Come, Thou Giver, great and sure;

Come, and make my spirit bright!

The death of Hacon - Eyvindr skáldaspillir

Gondul and Skogul swiftly flew,

To chuse from Yngva’s boasted blood

What king should wend, with heroes slain.

To dwell in Odin’s rich abode.

The living God we praise - Moses ibn Ezra

The living God we praise, exalt, adore!

He was, He is, He will be evermore.

To my physician - Elisabeth Kulmann

Physician, cease thine effort! 

I speak and have no fear 

Thou canst no longer save me, 

I know that Death is near. 

Immortal Youth - Khushal Khattak

My two-and-sixty years are flown,

Swift years of sorrow and delight, 

Exile Diary (I956-I967) - Hasan Alizadeh

Perhaps the homeland was this:

A far lonely village,

in an empty window frame,

a dried narrow brook & the naked aspen,

Odyssey - Louise Vella

Odysseus sailed for nine long years,

Abandoning his sweetheart

Cold-hearted Penelope

Sunrise at Sanchi Stupa - Tishani Doshi

We were sitting outside the stupa that morning when the sun shone

down like a woman sweeping clear roads of dust

For a Little Sister, not to Grow - Zvisinei C. Sandi

Don’t grow Midi,

Remain gold

Don’t let the passing of the years

Turn you into yet

Some more waste

Eastward, the Sun - Adam Mickiewicz

Eastward, the sun arises clad in gold,

Westward, the waning moonbeam disappears;

This is me and my life - Akkina Downing

They said it’s time I settle down

If I can’t find a man of my own 

They will be pleased to help me with that

They’re going to find me my man 

Love Song - Nahabed Koutchak

Thy face is like a moon that shines on earth,

Like a thick night thy clustering tresses be;

Departure - Erik Axel Karlfeldt

The black woods murmur

like psalm singing around the leaning cross of the fathers,

and dull as a watchful bumblebee

behind the ridges fades the Avesta rapids.

Loveliest Poem - Arvo Turtiainen

The loveliest poem is born

when you are close to someone,

Now I appreciate it - Aline Gahongayire

He cleared all of my debts

What else can I say?

He gave me yet another new name

I am now His own child.

(Nobody knows) Why I loved Fascist - Eka Kevanishvili

I beg your pardon, but

All was well in the beginning

He looked like a guardian angel

Of mine

AmneSIA - Teresia Teaiwa

get real

we were always

just stepping stones

War is a Crime (Elegy XI) - Tibullus

Whoe'er first forged the terror-striking sword,

His own fierce heart had tempered like its blade.

What slaughter followed! Ah! what conflict wild!

Change of Taste - Ján Kollár

'Tis wonderful how changeable

⁠The race of man is found,

How frequently with alt’ring age,

⁠The heart too turneth round!

Today - Thomas Carlyle

So here hath been dawning

Another blue Day:

Think wilt thou let it

Slip useless away.

An Irish Mother - Percy French

A wee slip drawin’ water,

    Me ould man at the plough,

No grown-up son nor daughter,

    That’s the way we’re farmin’ now.

Dawn (from Songs of Dzitbalche) - Anonymous

For the traveller

Who is on the road 

If the sun should come 

Here.

What a time the great sea - Anonymous (South Uist)

What a time the great sea

Was a grey mossy wood

I was a joyous little maiden

The Lusiad (extract from Book I: Night-time in the Indian Ocean) - Luís Vas de Camões

Now shooting o'er the flood his fervid blaze,

The red-brow'd sun withdraws his beamy rays;

Safe in the bay the crew forget their cares,

And peaceful rest their wearied strength repairs.

Lament for my Brother - al-Khansāʾ

What have we done to you, death

that you treat us so,

with always another catch

one day a warrior

the next a head of state;

Peace - Jacobus Revius

Beautiful is gold, most beautiful of all metals.

Beautiful is alabaster and the airy crystals;

Sometimes we are tied down by memories - Jaroslav Seifert

Sometimes we are tied down by memories

and there are no scissors that could cut

through those tough threads.

       Or ropes!

Do You Still Sleep In This Valley - Im Che

Do you still sleep in this valley, at rest under thriving grass?

Favour and disgrace are meaningless - Wu Cailan

Favour and disgrace are meaningless —

What's the use of contending?

Akhtamar - Hovhannes Tumanian

Beside the laughing lake of Van

A little hamlet lies;

Each night into the waves a man

Leaps under darkened skies.

Freedom - Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor

Let us all offer thanksgiving,

For Freedom has come to us;

It's after ages that she has beamed

Her radiance on us.

The African Mother - Francisco Acuña de Figueroa

Tirai-je enfans de la rive africaine.

    Qui cultivent pour nous la terre americaine?

Differents de couleur, ils ont les mêmes droits;

    Vous-mêmes contres vous les armez de vos lois.

      —Delille, Malheur et Pitie, Chant I.

“And hast thou sped upon the ocean wind,

     Say, cruel pirate, hast thou come for this?

                  Not to leave one behind.

The rainbow - ChatGPT

Through a veil of water, hues so bright and gay

A wondrous sight, that fills my heart with awe

As cascading droplets form fine spray

And rainbow arches, ashimmer, without flaw.

Broken Wings - Fabio Fiallo

The prison? It is very sad,

As every place must be

Rocket - Edvard Kocbek

Moonlight is dangerous,

Mothers used to say,

Sleeping walkers on nocturnal roofs

Are very suspicious,

Zoroaster devoutly questions Ormazd - Zoroaster

This I ask Thee — tell it to me truly, Lord! 

Who the Sire was, Father first of Holiness? 

Who the pathway for the sun and stars ordained? 

Who, through whom its moon doth wax and wane again? 

This and much else do I long, O God, to know. 

At School - Eduard Hoornik

At school they were both written on the board.

The verb to have and the verb to be;

With this time, and eternity were born,

The one reality, the other illusion.

Soldiers’ song - Bálint Balassi

Soldiers, what finer worth

Is there upon this earth

Than the borderlands can show?

i want a country - Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı

i want a country

let the sky be blue, the bough green, the cornfield yellow

let it be a land of birds and flowers

Winter - Enrique Cadícamo

It has returned:

winter, with its white veil—

the frost has already begun to sparkle

in my loveless life.

When you told us our glances, soft, timid, and mild - Wallada bint al-Mustakfi

When you told us our glances, soft, timid, and mild,

      Could occasion such wounds in the heart,

Can ye wonder that yours, so ungovern’d and wild,

      Some wounds to our cheeks should impart?

O Domine Deus - Mary, Queen of Scots

Lord and my Saviour

My hope is in thee; 

What about my songs - Yone Noguchi

The known-unknown-bottomed gossamer waves of the field

       arc coloured by the travelling shadows of the lonely,

       orphaned meadow lark;

Song of Snow-white Heads - Cho Wēn-chün

Our love was pure

As the snow on the mountains:

White as a moon

Between the clouds—

May (Part 1) - Karel Hynek Mácha

'T was late at eve . . . the first of May,

A night in May . . . 'twas time for love.

A love lure sang the turtle-dove,

Where scented pine groves stretched away.

Woes Of Georgia - David Guramishvili

The Turks, Ossetians, Lekis, Persians,

Cherkez, Ghlighvis, Didos and Kists

Were ever Georgia's enemies,

Assaulting her with blood-smeared fists.

Elsewhere I don't know, but here must be different - Nguyễn Quốc Chánh

Here in Phan Thiet

It's 7 o'clock.

The red sun flares.

The Lament for O’Sullivan Beare - Jeremiah Joseph Callanan

The sun of Ivera

No longer shines brightly,

The voice of her music

No longer is sprightly;

No more to her maidens

The light dance is dear,

Since the death of our darling

O’Sullivan Beare.

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend

With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.

A song to the wind - Taliesin

Guess who is this creature 

Before us outspeeding, 

Of strength so exceeding; 

Like someone - Ágnes Nemes Nagy

Like someone who came with a message from far away

and then forgot it completely

Christ, the victim undefiled - Wipo of Burgundy

Christ the Lord is risen today;

Christians, haste your vows to pay;

Offer ye your praises meet

At the Paschal Victim’s feet.

The life of man is as the dust - Khushal Khattak

What are human hopes and fears?

Why is thy heart elated or depressed?

Good Friday or The Suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ - Jeremias De Decker

Tantae molis erat sceptrum confringere mortis.

(So difficult it was to constrain the scepter of death.)

Since on this mournful day a tragic strain,

Not comic notes should rise,

O Lord, I now must mourn your bitter pain

And through it for my sins be moved to sighs.

By The Last Supper - Rainer Maria Rilke

Here they are gathered, wondering and deranged,

Round Him, who wisely doth Himself inclose,

Future - Porfirio Barba Jacob

Do say when I die… (and may the day be far)

That haughty and disdainful, prodigal and turbulent,

In the insatiable vital ecstasy

He was a flame in the wind…

He measured out - Mencius

He measured out and commenced his spirit-tower;

He measured it out and planned it.

Nature - Otakar Březina

Hidden springs were playing music and my day its song thereto was chanting,

On the melancholy shores.

To the Caliph Haroun al Rashid - Ibrahim ibn Adham

Religion's gems can ne'er adorn

The flimsy robe by pleasure worn;

Its feeble texture soon would tear,

And give those jewels to the air.

The Pleiades at midnight - Carsten Hauch

We are the nightly weavers 

who gather the invisible threads 

from the Milky Way's outmost ring 

where the end of the loom stands. 

A mother's lament for her drowned son - Anonymous

Alas, alas thine empty seat, my son!

Vainly thy garments I did toil to dry.

Thy mother's joy is clouded o'er with grief,

And darkness veils the lonely sky.

The Battle of Hafur's Bay - Hornklofi

Loud in Hafur’s echoing bay 

Heard ye the battle fiercely bray, 

’Twixt Kiotva rich, and Harald bold! 

Eastward sail the ships of war; 

The graven bucklers gleans afar,  

And monsterous heads adorn the prows of gold. 

Sways, with her trinkets - Hatim al-Tai

Sways, with her trinkets, she, endowed with splendour

With a waist like the fold of flimsy cloth, slim

And a neck like a cup of silver, adorning it

The blaze of the ruby and the strung beads

Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 192-276) - Joost van den Vondel

Lucifer:

Shall then on high

A worm, an alien, wield the greatest power?

Must they who native are to Heaven thus yield

To foreign rule? Shall man then found a throne

Even o'er the Throne of God?

My King - Nachmanides

Ere time began, ere age to age had thrilled, 

I waited in his storehouse, as he willed; 

He gave me being, but, my years fulfilled, 

I shall be summoned back before the King. 

Hands - Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Cooperation and understanding is essential

To build country brick by brick.

Most creatures are four-legged

But human being walks with two legs.

The Executioner's Dream - Kwesi Brew

I dreamt i saw an eye, a pretty eye

In your hands

Glittering, wet and sikening

Like a dull onyx set in a crown of thorns

I did not know you were dead

When you dropped it in my lap

Mount Beysitoun - Nizami Ganjavi

On lofty Beysitoun the lingering sun

Looks down on ceaseless labors, long begun;

The mountain trembles to the echoing sound

Of falling rocks that from her sides rebound.

The Frontier Guard - Anastasius Grün

The sentinel his weary hours

Keeps guard in quarantine;

Across the stream, in paths of flowers,

The Turkish maid is seen.

Memory - Erik Johan Stagnelius

O camp of flowers, with poplars girdled round,

Grey guardians of life’s soft and purple bud!

The First Book of the Æneis (lines 19-43) - Vergil

Against the Tiber’s mouth, but far away,

An ancient town was seated on the sea;

The Happy Islands - Isabel Maud Peacocke

O far away, and far away,

The Happy Islands lie;

In bluer seas of calm than these,

Beneath a bluer sky.

To St. Paul - Peter Damian

Learned Paul, thy sounding voice,

A trumpet, makes the church rejoice

Thou flying cloud of fiery birth,

Thy wisdom circles all the earth.

The fish is waiting - Jessie Kleemann

the one and only

in whose eyes I see

the fish

The Motoka - Theo Luzuka

You see that Benz sitting at the rich’s end ?

Ha! That motoka is motoka

It belongs to the Minister for Fairness

Who yesterday was loaded with a doctorate

At Makarere with whisky and I don’t know what

Plus I hear the literate thighs of an undergraduate.

 

Consider - Munur Mambetaliev

Friend, when you visit cemeteries, don’t be afraid.

All the dead are Kyrgyz, and most of them you know.

Over here is Kerim. You knew him well.

And Karakoichu. Alym. Bekish. Sabyr. And the others . . .

Of Policies And Capacities - Ndaba Sibanda

This economy has whiskey

how can it be so drunk and risky?

A Song of the Road - José Santos Chocano

The way was black,

The night was mad with lightning; I bestrode

My wild young colt upon a mountain road.

Thus sang the burning stars - Otakar Březina

Each second that passes, ever within our places

In the mystic dance of the worlds

We revolve in the cosmos.

In the lustrous spheres of spirits we burn with a living

Beauty.

Around our heads,

In aureoles

Golden tresses are sparkling,

Extended like resonant lassos

In the flight of the whirlwind.

Time is precious, I know - Tua Forsström

Time is precious, I know,

to each enough of one’s own suffering.

The sun is happy that a sparrow loves its life - John Puhiatau Pule

The sun is happy that a sparrow loves its life.

Branches calm the air down to a smooth solitude.

Energy from my psyche drives the stars

that imitate water when its eyes are wished for.

 

A last note on the fat brown woman and shoes - Sia Figiel

No shoe fits the foot of the fat brown woman

No high heel

No low heel

Moles - Sheena Baharudin

By the time I was ten years old

a number of moles have already made

my body and my face, their home.

Funeral Song - Tan Lixin

Not a melody,

not the voice of a songbird,

but quiet trails of tears,

silent prayers, the coarse cries

of a grown man.

There’s a place - José Luis Appleyard

There’s a place in the world where I live

small and unique,

a place of my own,

a piece of land, redolent of wood,

with people like me,

in a captive heart,

diminutive, bleeding and sad.

First Rain - Avrom Sutzkever

What shall I do with so much memory?

Where shall I hide it,

Infuse it in veins —

For my grandchild to find it?

Lo, the signs of our Lord are everlasting - Umayyah ibn Abī aṣ-Ṣalt

Lo, the signs of our Lord are everlasting,

None disputes them except the unbeliever.

Good Morning Lebanon - Majid Al Mohandes

Good morning O Lebanon

Evening of Death O Beirut

Evening of tears in the eyelids

And the injury of our repressed feelings

O Beirut

The prayer of the goldfish - Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

O God,

forever I turn in this hard crystal,

so transparent, yet I can find no way out.

You come up - Alice S. Yousef

You come up,

like the treasure found at the end of a box

Most bitter is the bite of hunger - Elie Rajaonarison

Most bitter is the bite of hunger

which awakens you in the morning

keeps you up at night

There was a child once - Boris Petrovsky

There was a child once.

He came to play in my garden;

He was quite pale and silent.

The Longing - Nimah Ismail Nawwab

Freedom.

How her spirit

Haunts,

Hooks,

Entices us all

One thing - Namdev

One thing I of my Lord entreat,

That I may ever serve his feet.

Who will slay the wolf - Ali Podrimja

And the gentleman said

Should you happen to come upon

An Albanian and a wolf

Slay the Albanian

Grass will grow - Jonathan Kariara

If you should take my child Lord

Give my hands strength to dig his grave

cover him with earth

Lord send a little rain

For grass will grow

May I Speak to the Queen... - Nana Arhin Tsiwah

I am from that land of burrowed mythologies

a statement of wrapped raped soil

feet as dirty as a camel’s ankle

shirt torn by the lenses of the butcher

The evils of the Balwo - Sayyid Muhammad 'Abdille Hassan

Oh my God, my God, have mercy 

on us and save us from the balwo.

The monarchs of old reigned and built their palaces,

But they fell short of achievement; 

they did not sojourn long in them 

and their desires were not fulfilled.

Advice in Three Sets of Three - Butön Rinchen Drup

To shun even minor misdeeds as if they were poisonous,

To strive to cultivate virtue even when it is challenging,

To overcome thoughts rooted in self-clinging—

One who adopts these three is learned indeed.

Ode to Dubh-Ghiolla, the Shield of Aodh - Dallán Forgaill

Bright as the speckled salmon of the wave! 

Dubh-Ghiolla! panic of the banded brave; 

To the Directors of Amsterdam in Their New Stadthouse - Constantijn Huygens

Illustrious men! who bade the world’s eighth wonder rise,

Lifting its crown of stone sublimely to the skies;

Whose splendid walls are reared by skill’s unerring hand,

To use, the end, the source of all that ’s rich and grand;

Simplicity - Jorge Luis Borges

The garden gate swings open,

gently, like a page in a book

that I have often questioned,

A Bird Ballad - Henrik Johan Ibsen

One lovely day in springtime

We paced the avenue; 

As some dark riddle draws one

The place forbidden drew.

Song about the Pain of Love and Sea - Pai Gomez Charinho

Those who spend their lives at sea

think there is no pain in the world

as great as their pain, and no fate worse

than a seaman’s fate, but consider me:

God of freedom, God of justice - Shirley Erena Murray

God of freedom, God of justice,

you whose love is strong as death,

you who saw the dark of prison,

you who knew the price of faith —

       touch our world of sad oppression

       with your Spirit's healing breath.

The Single Minded Nature - Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke

Nature, with romantic monoty

plans the spring of our life

copying its own adolescent dreams.

The Frenchwomen of Fulham - Julie Irigaray

Each morning, the French women of Fulham

do cardio in the park next to the French school

where their French children are pupils.

Peace be still - Delphina Robert

Keyword: Ignite

There are times when I could start a riot when I actually want peace

Peace be still

All acts of love must surrender - Kezang Dechen Choden

All acts of love must surrender;

Anything else is a grandiose display of the ego.

Admonition Of A Loving Father to his Daughter - Lord Cam

Be very careful following the thinkings or trends of the world.

For sometimes the world is wrong.

I have come through torments - Annasoltan Kekilova

I have come through torments within these walls,

A Prayer Before Sleep - Cece Oh!

Like the beautiful sunlight, let all my fears scoot away;

As I sleep on my lovely bed, make my worries vanish into thin air.

Make the faintest of my doubts be forever erased;

With Your abundant, endless love, have my terrors effaced.

 

Tuvalu, Tuvalu - Iftikhar Ayaz

Tuvalu, Tuvalu –

Our home and friend

Our birth place – And end

We love you

The Blue Hills Blues - Telcine Turner-Rolle

When I woke up this morning got me them Blue Hills blues.

When I woke up this morning got me them Blue Hills blues.

In less than a generation we messed up God’s venues

Dark and fearful - Bandi

Dark and fearful, the night was long,

But the new day has come, this bright new world,

The bells of freedom, clamorous, ringing,

The birds in the sky do their fluttering dance.

Mansae, mansae, manmansae! Hail freedom!

Women of Africa - Ahmed Sékou Touré

Women of Africa,

Women of the Revolution!

You will rise up to apex

You will journey endlessly

At a walking pace of the social Revolution,

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.