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Saturday, 31 May 2025

Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing - Sadako Kurihara

Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins.
Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room;
It was dark—not even a single candle.
The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death,
The closeness of sweaty people, the moans.

Friday, 30 May 2025

Himalaya - Lekhnath Paudyal

A scarf of pure white snow
Hangs down from its head to its feet,
Cascades like strings of pearls
Glisten on its breast,
A net of drizzling cloud
Encircles its waist like a gray woolen shawl:
An astounding sight, still and bright,
Our blessed Himalaya.

Thursday, 29 May 2025

This journey - Christopher Kudyahakudadirwe

This journey has been too long:
We’ve trudged through endless corridors of darkness
Trying to find ourselves in the maze of our lives.

Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Laying on this uncomfortable couch - Imthishal Mohamed

Laying on this uncomfortable couch which daddy drove all night to find,
Made me realize,
I am living and breathing in a shantytown

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

African Woman - Elizabeth Njeri Waweru

I am African.
I am a proud African.
I am very rich in kindness.
The kindness I often extend to the enemy.
Before they attempt to assassinate my authentic being.

Monday, 26 May 2025

To the Spanish Expedition for the Promotion of Vaccination in America, under Don Francisco Balmis - Manuel José Quintana

Fair Virgin of the world, America!
Thou who so innocent to heaven display'st
Thy bosom stored with plenty's rich array,

Sunday, 25 May 2025

Penitence - Andrew of Crete

Whence shall my tears begin?
What first-fruits shall I bear
Of earnest sorrow for my sin?
Or how my woes declare?
O thou! the Merciful and Gracious One!
Forgive the foul transgressions I have done.

Saturday, 24 May 2025

I love you - Lörinc Szabó

I love you, I love you, I reach for you
All day I look for you, seek for you
All day when you’re gone I’m in tears for you

Friday, 23 May 2025

City Night - Tahir Hamut Izgil

From the airport to the train station and bus station
Myriad people emerge
Crazily they throw themselves at the city
Seeping with anger into the ground like dirty water, splattered
But I enter its night, walking

Thursday, 22 May 2025

For My Eightieth Birthday - Eugenio Montejo

The eightieth year of my life is as far away
as the moment I was born.
In the distance, the clocks are erased,
but tonight I open my home to my friends,
I want them all to come
to celebrate at my side.

Wednesday, 21 May 2025

Such, Such is Death - Charles Hamilton Sorley

Such, such is Death: no triumph: no defeat:
Only an empty pail, a slate rubbed clean,
A merciful putting away of what has been.

Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Paradise. Storefront. Monte Street - Reina María Rodríguez

The ventilator
blades are tired       of lifting dust over
      these lifeless objects
objects in disuse.exhaling.restlessness.

Monday, 19 May 2025

A horse beyond compare - Raage Ugaas

A spear that chops limbs,
half-blackened from its formidable iron shaft,
that, when it is shot at you, flails frightfully through the air –

Sunday, 18 May 2025

Yearning - Anonymous

Happy name; I you, my brethren, who, not ever doomed to roam.
In the Eternal Father's mansion from the first have dwelt at home.

Saturday, 17 May 2025

Apetites - Elena Alexieva

I will look incresingly like something eaten
I will be somebody's spoon of honey
unless I turn into another thing

Friday, 16 May 2025

The lost mate - Arabel Moulton-Barrett

Two singing birds have come flying across the sea;
but only one has reached land. He mourns his mate:

Answer me, sing to me,
Mate of my heart,
Tho' I call out to thee,
Silent thou art.

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Requiem to the Yard - Vizma Belševica

An elk-torn apple tree cross.
Some rotten eaves and posts.
Underneath lies my childhood
Along with a clearing’s bright sun,
With a shepherdess’ barefoot steps
There, under the ruins of a shed.

Wednesday, 14 May 2025

May Day - Bernard Patrick O'Dowd

A straggling, tame procession, perhaps,
A butt for burgess scorn;
Its flags are ragged sentiments,
And its music's still unborn.

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Made to punish men - Akiko Yosano

Made to punish men for their sins
The smoothest skin
The longest black hair…

Monday, 12 May 2025

Robenson - Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı

Robinson, my clever Robinson
you don't know how I envy you.
If you could only show me your island,
there I would find peace of mind.

Sunday, 11 May 2025

Saturday, 10 May 2025

Kids Play Outside and I Write Kaiju Dreams - Tawanda Mulalu

Neon Genesis Evangelion usually posits three best girls, Rei, Asuka, and
Misato (who isn’t a girl because she drinks a cold beer after a hot shower

Friday, 9 May 2025

Shadow - Zvisinei C. Sandi

Under the shadow of the jacaranda
She stood – waiting
Down the dark avenue a car was coming

Thursday, 8 May 2025

White Smoke White Smoke - Bukang Liwayway

White smoke, white smoke,
Voting is over for the new pope,
It’s a sign of our great victory,
Memorable moments in the history.

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

I, the Pastoral - Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo

My name is Koumbaadyo, princess of N'Gabou.
I am the great-great-granddaughter of Ramatoulaye Télico, the first storyteller and poet of Fouta Djallon.

Tuesday, 6 May 2025

what’s the use of poetry - Jürgen Rooste

what’s the use of poetry
I ask you – what

does poetry reconcile
our divorced parents

Monday, 5 May 2025

Your Father - Saba Kidane

Propped on the sidewalk
with a few coins near her legs
and a child wrapped in the folds
of her scarf worn to shreds,
she holds out her hand in the cold.

Sunday, 4 May 2025

Word of Life, most pure, most strong! - J.F. Bahnmaier

Word of Life, most pure, most strong!
 Lo! for Thee the nations long;
Spread, till from its dreary night
All the world awakes to light.

Saturday, 3 May 2025

Friday, 2 May 2025

Birth, Old Age, Sickness, Death - Dieu Nhan


Birth, old age, sickness, death
Are commonplace and natural.
Should we seek relief from one,
Another will surely consume us.

Thursday, 1 May 2025

The Revenants - Mohamed Sehaba

We had chased them
because they held the words
still tangled with seaweed, with earth
or attached to spears.