Journey's End - Jónas Hallgrímsson

The star of love
over Steeple Rock
is cloaked in clouds of night.
It laughed, once, from heaven
on the lad grieving
deep in the dark valley.

No Life - Aminath Neena

Where there is no respect
for the might
of the pen,
there is no life

Being a Palauan - Hermana Ramarui

Palauan, not a thing,
But a state of being,
Is capability
And is freedom.

The Lake of Van (1) - Raffi

Speak, O lake! why are thy waters silent?
Wilt thou not lament with luckless me?
Move, ye zephyrs, move the rippling wavelets
With this lake my tears shall mingled be.

O My Libya - Laila Neihoum

We’ll go with you wherever you may go.
Our palm trees blossom from your secret springs.
Your face redeems us.

Miracle - Seamus Heaney

Not the one who takes up his bed and walks
But the ones who have known him all along
And carry him in —

Hour of sadness - Israel Emiot

Hour of sadness
rain all the time
everything close
and full of goodbyes;

Colour Me Blue - Nicole Grandaho

If melodies be your magic,
conjure a tune to which this heart could leap
maybe then would she dance her pains away.
Cast upon trees soulful lyrics
make them bend with the weight of their essence
maybe then would you write this torment right.

Egg Of Light - Frankétienne

Every day I employ the dialect of mad cyclones.
I speak the lunacy of contrary winds.
Every evening I use the patois of furious rains.
I say the fury of water is spilling over.
Every night I talk the language of hysterical tempests
to the Caribbean islands. I speak the hysteria of the sea in rut.

Offspring of the Distant Word: II - Susy Delgado

In an awakening
everyone
must go away;

Fountain - Astrid Cabral

Fountain:
Somersault of rain
In a mortar of stone.

Kwibuka - Delalorm Sesi Semabia

You were my brother

When the rains fell fast,

Racing down for their share of the scavenge

Which the river had reddened itself with.

Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 414-492) - Joost van den Vondel

Belial:

God's Stadtholder doth serve himself with us

On high.

Apollion:

               We fly together from his bow

Like speeding arrows.

After the Flood - Dora Wilcox

Here, in this bend of the creek, in the rushes and long lush grasses,

Wild white violets nestle, and musk in the water- weeds;

Here there is stillness, and shelter — for the wandering wind as it passes

Is caught by the tall green flax, and dies in the raupo and reeds.

Elfarvísur - Einarr Skúlason

Many a man fell from the bloody prow of the sea-steed into the deep; 

abundant nourishment was given to the Glaumr of the troll-woman; 

carrion drifted before the current. 

The Gallery - Elena Alexieva

I am whispering in your ear:

we are passing, thunderously,

through the tunnel where

this girl was...

Talk to me - Fattú Djakité

You're mad at me, I don't even know why

Talk to me so we can make peace

You're mad at me, I don't even know why

Talk to me so we can make peace

 

A Visit to Grass Town - Efua Sutherland

We’ve never seen a caterpillar just like this. 

It seems to have a horn on its hairy head.

Way - Tristan Tzara

What is this road that separates us,

Across which I extend the hand of thought?

Munajat - ‛Arif

O Lord, to thee is never a beginning, neither end; 

Thy mercy's ocean, limitless, doth over all extend. 

Just a moment - Debebe Seifu

Is it in the power of angels

         or mankind

too grant me just a moment

         out of time?

Actions - Divya Rainjana Suraindiran

These socks won’t warm you,

and neither will that sweater;

Your sorrow won’t calm you,

and you won’t feel any better.

In writing - Conceição Evaristo

In writing hunger

With empty-palmed hands

when the hole-stomach

expels famished desires

there is, in this demented movement

the dream-hoping

for any leftovers.

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