The Man Next Door - Ernest O'Ferrall

Fragments of song around me lie,

Fair ballads of delight,

Sweet things an editor would buy

And treasure at first sight;

All broken now, they're but a heap

Of paper on the floor.

(Some night, armed with an axe, I'll leap

Upon the fiend next door!)

The Disavowal - Muthaffar al-Nawab

My son, when your rib supported mine

you restored it and set it straight

My son, take me to the feast in your arms

Count the white hairs I reaped from your life

A world there is for those in love - Mahsati Ganjavi

A world there is for those in love with mines of precious stones,

But bards select a different world as setting for their thrones.

Rain - Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger

You go. And the asphalt is suddenly wet,

The green on the trees suddenly new,

And a scent as if of fresh hay

Strikes you in the face that, warm and pale,

Has long awaited the rain.

Field In Spring - Nichita Stãnescu

Green rings around the eyes, this grass in vibrant motion

arcs tenderly about you, at a distance-

you summon it, then fling it round, broken

by your laugh of youth and innocence.

The Unfinished - Hermana Ramarui

You introduced to us

The world you know.

Why not with proper plan?

I think it rains - Wole Soyinka

I think it rains

That tongues may loosen from the parch

Uncleave roof-tops of

the mouth, hang

Heavy with knowledge

Chromaphagite - León Gil

Today I breakfasted on red

violet blue yellow and green

Volt - Tristan Tzara

The inclined towers the oblique skies

The cars descending into the void of roads

The creatures along the country lanes

Branches covered with hospitable virtues

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness - Rabi’a of Basri

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.

My Beloved is alone with me there, always.

Bekita - Elis Juliana

Lady Bekita lifted up her skirt

And stalked into the ballroom

With a smile, with coquetry

With calculated steps

And complete body control

Bekita, Bekita,

Bekita, Bekita.

The Adieu - Abou Mohammed

The boatmen shout, "'Tis time to part,

No longer can we stay;"—

'Twas then Maimuna taught my heart 

How much a glance could say.

Mama you've done well - Erwin Jones

I was first, a thought in your precious mind,

Until I became a living cell.

In the darkness of your motherly womb,

It took me nine long months to be fully groomed.

And Mama, you've done well.

At a Refugee Camp - Julius Chingono

After bouts of kachasu

we sleep drunk

to wake up in running battles

with hangovers

that seek refuge

in our heads.

My Bosnia, Devastated - Safet Isović

My Bosnia, devastated

My country, unplowed

Four summers fallow

 

In the Circle of the Veranda, 14 - Ivar Ivask

How could I reach back that far,

how could I become one with the old

churchyard in Rongu, daydreaming here

in these Bitterroot woods, blue enamel mug

in hand? A mug brimful with raspberries

And YHVH spoke to me when I saw His name - Rabbi Abraham Abulafia

And YHVH spoke to me when I saw His name

spelled out and merged with the blood in my heart,

separating blood from ink and ink from blood:

On the Massacre - Chayim Nachman Byalik

Ye heavens, pray for mercy on my head!

If God abides in you, and if a way

To Him exists, which yet I have not found,

Do you my prayers unto His ear convey!

Eclogue - Vicente Huidobro

                                    Sun about to die

The car broken down

And a smell of spring

Remains as the air sweeps by

Kiss The Earth - Thích Nhat Hanh

Walk and touch peace every moment.

Walk and touch happiness every moment.

Sonnet 148 - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Celia saw a rose which in happy self-praise

flaunted its pomp and vanity in the field,

cosmetics of carmine and cochineal

merrily smeared over its delicate face;

 

The waves on the shore - Bedros Adamian

The day is bright June weather,

The cool north wind blows free;

Why swells thy breast, old ocean?

Horses wade in the Nemunas - Bernardas Brazdzionis

horses wade in the Nemunas

they drink flowing fog

they drink the morning

Dear Lord - Azim Razak

Dear Lord

Why is it that those closer to you than me

They who pray five times a day

Every day, without fail

The Postman - Buland Al-Haydari

What do you want postman?

I am far away from the world

with no doubt you are mistaken...

since there is nothing new

that the world can bring to this fugitive.

After I Ate An English Thesaurus - Khayelihle Bongiswa Gamedze

I accidentally ate, consumed, chew in,

A thesaurus, a synonymopedia.

And ever since then, at that moment, by that time,

My words, vocabulary, sayings just sublime.

Skarphedinn among the flames - Hannes Hafstein

Booming and quaking.

Cracking and breaking,

Down crashed the rafters

And roofbeams sturdy.

A Camel - Murō Saisei

In thin shade

a camel that is fastened,

like an aged man,

Fascioners of Progress - Kendel Hippolyte

Because you do not heed the voices of Imagination,

neither the tongues of trees nor the voices of poets,

earth will erupt in a conspiracy of poetry and nature.

On Spring - Lâmiî Çelebi

From the pleasure, joy, and rapture of this hour,

In its frame to hold its soul earth scarce hath power.

Rent its collar, like the dawning, hath the rose;

From its heart the nightingale sighs forth its woes.