My eyes melt - Louise Vella

My eyes melt

with the incongruence of flowers

stringing in pairs

and threes

washed by the night rain

glad to be singing lofty notes

in cloud-clad skies.

Poets - Antun Branko Šimić

Poets are eternal wonder in the world.

They walk the Earth and their eyes

large and mute grow near the things.

Tuna - Kumalau Tawali

Tuna you are the mirror of the blue

Tuna you are the pain in my veins

Tuna you are lord.

Olive tree - Mersedeh Mehrtash

Ever since I was a baby

Ever since I can remember

My mother always told me

Dear child, God is not for you to see

Ossuary VIII - Dionne Brand

Havana, Yasmine arrived one early evening,

the stem of an orange dress,

a duffle bag, limp, with no possessions

As the Days Pass - Kamini Roy

As the days pass, darkness overwhelms me

I see not the divine light; hear not that oracle

Childhood fancies, dreams I think countless

All those yearn to believe as truth…

Poem to a Poet - Siza Nkosi

I can only bring words to the altar of your soul

Yet sometimes I have no words to offer

But when my pen sinks in the sea of my blank mind

Sounds of your poetry carry me to my highest self

Night Rain on the Hsiao Hsiang River - Lê Thánh Tông

Dripping, dripping in the Hsiang forest

All through the windy night

The rain falls heavy and light,

Return Me To The Fire - Mahadai Das

If I should ever die

Return me to the fire

The radio, with its breath like a trapped bee - Kuek Taitai

We, the red and white oxen, wash our hands,

shaking our heads angrily as we walk.

At dawn we will set fire to all the camps.

Again we hail the opening morn - Synesius

Again we hail the opening morn,

Again breaks forth the day new-born,

Which, rising in victorious might,

Chases away black-wandering night!

Hymn to Boudiaf - Lounès Matoub

For so many years far from your country!

You revolted, you turned against tyranny

We were waiting for the new clearness from you

about what the criminals had devoured

but behind you, death rose up

guided by unforeseeable traitors

Miserable ones, may he remind you of it--  

you are the ones who lit the furnace.

Realities of Island Life - Farah Didi

narrow

wind kissed roads,

unpaved with

coral stones,

must be

swept twice daily,

To Russia (The Overseas Ostrich) - Vladimir Mayakovsky

Here I come,

in feathers of stanzas, meter and rhyme,

an overseas ostrich, in sum,

is what I’m.

Trying, do I, my poor noggin to hide,

to deep under jangling of plumage abide.

There is a cave in man - Eira Stenberg

There is a cave in man,

it is where he comes from.

He does not know that.

Till tomorrow - Pamelia Sarah Yule

Good night! good night! — the golden day

      Has veiled its sunset beam, 

And twilight's star its beauteous ray

      Has mirrored in the stream; — 

Low voices come from vale and height, 

And murmur soft, good night! good night!

Firefly - Miho Nonaka

Something not to be painted, but set

to music, Tanizaki wrote. Dusk,

when their light is the clearest,

My husband and I walk on the grass,

smelling of beer and garlic.

Hymn from the Heavens - Yannai

From Heaven to the Heaven of Heavens;

from the Heaven of Heavens to the Dark Clouds;

from the Dark Clouds to the Abode;

from the Abode to the Dwelling-place;

from the Dwelling-place to the Skies;

from the Skies to the Plains;

from the Plains to the height of the Throne;

and from the height of the Throne to the Chariot --

A Flyer - Norman Erikson Pasaribu

This software will assemble a series of steps that

will guarantee you’ll be happy for the rest of your life.

The wooden Christ - Faustas Kirsa

In his fathers' home, a farmer who's a hundred 

Carves a wooden model Lord that works some wonders.

Dog - Boris Maruna

In the bare mountains between Marbella and Ronda

That pitilessly recall our native Velebit

That could be Velebit

But aren’t Velebit

Just as I could be God

But am not God

In the Ashtray - Vasko Popa

A tiny sun

With yellow tobacco hair

Is burning out in the ashtray

My Song - Almas Ildirim

I am a lover, if my body burns in icy hell,

These fearful mountains cannot stand my inexhaustible mourning

If the angels present paradise to me

I would tell them:

I don't want paradise,

Give me my Caucasus!

If my heart - Eunice Mtavangu

If my heart could grow

You could have seen its seed

Augmenting

Pushing through the light

Ready to produce fruits.

The Greatest Song of All - Spike Milligan

There is a song in man

There is a song in woman

And that is the child’s song.

When I’m gone - Phusathi Liyanaarachchi

Don’t cry me a river,

When I’m gone…

as you

stare at the patterns

that my presence

has left….

A Song of Winter - Alexander Bathgate

Bird on the leafless bough. 

Summer has fled;

Bird on the leafless bough, 

Flowers are dead.

Copenhagen Watchman's Song - Thomas Kingo

Eight o'clock

When darkness blinds the Earth,

And the day declines,

That time then us reminds 

Of death’s dark grave;

Shine on us, Jesus sweet,

At every step To the grave place,

And grant a blissful death.

Shepherdesses' song - Gil Vicente

Turn away your eyes from mine,

O my life and consolation! 

Wherefore fill me with such passion?

Frithiof Saga, Canto VI: Frithiof at Chess - Esaias Tegnér

I.

BJÖRN and FRITHIOF, both contending, 

O'er their splendid board were bending; 

Now on silver squares thick gather, 

Now on gold, the struggling foes: 

Answer to a Reproach for Drunkenness - Caliph Yazid I

Must, then, my failings from the shaft

Of anger ne'er escape ? 

And dost thou storm because I've quaffed

The water of the grape?

Dynamic Love - Evelyn Underhill

Not to me

The Unmoved Mover of philosophy

And absolute still sum of all that is,

The God whom I adore— not this!

To Nelson Mandela - Djibril Zakaria Sall

All is dark around me 

My ideas are gagged 

And the world works backward 

God! I am alone on the balcony of Life 

They say that the night - Zahra el Hasnaui

They say that the night

repossesses

your indigo, violet,

and cobalt tones.

Dedication - Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg

Yes, you know it, dearest soulmate,

Far from you, I have such anguish

Love has made my heart so faint,

Take my thanks.