Venice masks

Friday, 4 July 2025

Definitions - Sara Vanégas Coveña

Memory is a bird
migrating
between my heart and the void

Thursday, 3 July 2025

The Song of the Heavens, the Stars, Schumann and My Wife - Hanuš Jelínek

Du meine Seele . . .
The heavens have cried their golden tears,
They have cried so still, they have cried;

Wednesday, 2 July 2025

In her shoes - Asante Lucy Mtenje

In her shoes, those shoes,
those two sizes too big,
worn out “kanavasi”
she drags along to the dumpsters
to rummage through the wilting,
rusty banana and mango peels,
disregarding the stench and the flies
that hover around her long
after she has retired to “bed”.

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

O the Chimneys - Nelly Sachs

O the chimneys
On the carefully planned dwellings of death
When Israel’s body rose dissolved in smoke

Sunday, 29 June 2025

The world is being run on time - Francis Brabazon

The world is being run on time, by time, for time, and at no time are we free
Just to sit and enjoy even the outward forms of the Beloved's beauty.

Saturday, 28 June 2025

Discourse with Mara - Sisupacala

Setting at Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the bhikkhuni Sisupacala dressed... she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.

Friday, 27 June 2025

When night draws on - al-Khansāʾ

When night draws on, remembering keeps me wakeful 
And hinders my rest with grief upon grief returning 
For Ṣakhr. What a man was he on the day of battle, 
When, snatching their chance, they swiftly exchange the spear-thrusts! 

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Before there was a trace of this world of men - Bibi Hayati

Before there was a trace of this world of men,
I carried the memory of a lock of your hair,
A stray end gathered within me, though unknown.

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Hymn to Adonis - Praxilla

The most beautiful thing I leave behind is the sun’s light; 
second, the shining stars and the moon’s face; 
also ripe cucumbers and apples and pears.

Tuesday, 24 June 2025

The sixth love - Beatrice of Nazareth

When the bride of our Lord has made progress 
and has climbed up to greater robustness, 
she experiences yet another way of love, 
more profoundly joined and with higher knowledge.

Monday, 23 June 2025

I long for the land that is not - Edith Södergran

I long for the land that is not,
For all that is, I am weary of wanting.
The moon speaks to me in silvern runes
About the land that is not.

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Longing - Juan Ramón Molina

Ah, that I had lived in times tested
by love, by war and by conquest,
when friars, soldiers and desperadoes
went off across unquiet seas
in search of distant lands,

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Boko Haram - Iron Bender

Bandits Boko Haram, notorious religious discriminators
Organized by the so called defenders of Allah,
Killing and maltreating of human beings and
Opposing to modern civilization and human rights

Tuesday, 17 June 2025

They sold my soul - Alidou Tougma

Art is my part
Money is your giant bow
Jean of Arc is no longer alive but Jean of park is aiming at me

Monday, 16 June 2025

Beautiful Tears - Nametso Dorothy Phonchi

African tears are beautiful,
We were born crying before we knew time,
Our tears are beautiful like sun rays
like the moon and the stars,

Sunday, 15 June 2025

Ghazel 56 - Nesimi

Since from yonder lunar Visage now the veil is cast aside,
Lo! the glorious sun is risen and of gloom is past the tide.

Saturday, 14 June 2025

Rova Blues, My Queen's Palace - Voahanitriniaina Rabary-Andriamanday

The Queen's Palace of ancient times
has been renewed with christian rhymes;
And for the glory of new days,
Let's sing and shout as the Queen prays.

Friday, 13 June 2025

Anti-Grace - Paulin Joachim

I call anti-grace
first the offering up of life
as an unending battle waged to bring light 
(in this divided province where nothing happens
where no road goes up a mountain
where the sun itself now never rises out of the hollow of the sea) 

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Tuesday, 10 June 2025

Linden tree whispers... - Pavlo Tychyna

You know how the linden tree whispers
In the springtime, at night, by the light of the moon?

Monday, 9 June 2025

Lament for a dead lover - Sraad Haad

You were the fence standing between our land and the descendants of ‘Ali,
(Now in your departure) you are the sky which gives no rain while mist shrouds the world,

Sunday, 8 June 2025

Pentecost - Malcolm Guite

Today we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today  the hidden fountain flows and plays
Today the church draws breath at last and sings
As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise.

Saturday, 7 June 2025

Epigram on Sultan Mahmoud - Ferdowsi

’Tis said our monarch’s liberal mind
Is like the ocean unconfined.

Friday, 6 June 2025

No Country to Own - Arathy Asok

What will people do,
Who have no city to call their own?
Whose houses are four corners they turned,
When life took them.

Wednesday, 4 June 2025

Night - Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg

From the thicket steps the night,
From the trees it steals so softly,
Spreads itself in widened circle,
Now, take care.

Tuesday, 3 June 2025

I Do Not Bow - Qassim Haddad

Naked I stand in the chilling wind
Alone
like the letter A
and I do not bow

Monday, 2 June 2025

In a Retreat among Bamboos - Wang Wei

Alone I am sitting under close bamboos,
Playing on my lute, singing without words.

Sunday, 1 June 2025

Not to - Tammy Stone Takahashi

Not to look to the ground, 
but to become the ground,
at times porous and trembling,
but more often than not,
steady, sturdy, nourishing.

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.

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

F E E L - Ben Caesar

I been away I been around
I been kissing the sky, I been hitting the ground
None of us know what tomorrow may hold
I guess we just hope it doesn't let us go

Tuesday, 29 April 2025

Soon enough - Maura Eidabugi Thoma

I hear the desperate voice of my homeland,
As the waves comfort the sand.

Monday, 28 April 2025

For Jasmine - Ernest Pépin

I will place this poem on your grave
Like a sun demanding justice
Time has not fallen silent
It has not forgotten how you left

Sunday, 27 April 2025

Justice - Hussein Al-Jassmi

Oppression in the world is the enemy of justice
And goodness always asks evil what for
Man with his actions or with his money
What good is money if everyone is wronged

Saturday, 26 April 2025

Fiery Ocean Sky - Hariz Fadhilah

Wild crimson flames lit,
The indigo ocean skies,
Scorching, titillating turquoise waves,
Emanating clouds of ashy gray

Friday, 25 April 2025

My island lies o'er the ocean - Amata Kabua

My island lies o'er the ocean;
Like a wreath of flowers upon the sea;

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Us White Policemen - Iron Bender

Here comes the story of a beloved Nation
powerful, Civillzed, and democratic,
Blacks and Whites in the same Army
Whites and Blacks in the same Navy;
Both of them in the same Police.

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

My Poem To Naa - Nii-Ayi Solomon

I am writing this poem to the woman I love,
This poem tells the story of my heart,
It’s the true reflection of my fondness for an African queen,
Naa, your beauty overwhelms me.

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

How I love her way - Tangatailoa

How I love her way,
Love her way that is hers alone,
Little green pigeon still unlearned;
The pigeon we’re seeking is a maiden.

Monday, 21 April 2025

Where has she gone? - Naupata

Where has she gone?
 
She has gone to Avaiki,
She disappeared at the edge of the horizon
Where the sun drops through.
We weep for you.

Sunday, 20 April 2025

On Easter Sunday - Taras Shevchenko

On Easter Sunday among the straw
Out in the sun the children played
With Easter eggs in colors braw

Saturday, 19 April 2025

A woman is a woman - Milena Ercolani

A woman is a woman ...
Each time she speaks to you
And says nothing of the ghosts
You would have wanted
To stitch across her lips
And on her shoulders

Friday, 18 April 2025

Gentleman of the Night - Claudia Torres

Shy caresses
all over my skin,
scent of cinnamon,
of guava.

Thursday, 17 April 2025

Aurora - Caetano da Costa Alegre

You're horrified by me, I know. Aurora,
You are the day, I am the thick night,
Where I end, your being does alight.
You don't love!... this soul of mine worships you, flora.

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Bonaire National Anthem - Hubert Obdulio Booi

Land of sun and gentle breeze,
Proud fatherland risen from the sea
Humble people, always happy,
Whose spirit is admired by all

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

A Dark Alley - Zahir al-Ghafri

No one in the dark alley but you 
The mouth’s flower in the dark 
You’re the woman of the last breaths 
And empty archways. 

Monday, 14 April 2025

Female 2000 - Souad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah

Like all the women of the earth
I could have courted the mirror.

Sunday, 13 April 2025

Willow Sunday - Anonymous

It’s not me hitting you,
It’s the willow hitting you,

Saturday, 12 April 2025

Watching Raindrops - Celestine Kulagoe

On a rainy day when the clouds are thick,
charged with lightning, I love
to sit by the roots of the banyan tree,

Friday, 11 April 2025

Empty Confesions of Time - Nkosilathi Sibanda

Of lived fantasies at dark spots,
to the hard to remember night outs,
coupled with joys and fears.

Thursday, 10 April 2025

On a blind girl - Baha al-Din Zuhayr

They called my love a poor blind maid;
I love her more for that, I said;
I love her, for she cannot see 
These grey hairs which disfigure me 

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

Our Homeland - Michel Lentz

Where the Alzette slowly flows,
The Sauer plays wild pranks,
Where fragrant vineyards amply grow
On the Mosella's banks;
There lies the land for which we would
Dare everything down here,
"Our own, our native land which ranks
Deeply in our hearts."

Saturday, 5 April 2025

Scattered or alone - Bruce Levitan

The blue
of a clear sky
is just
I L L U S I O N
Rayleigh scattering

Friday, 4 April 2025

Do not obey - Edouard J. Maunick

When you are ordered
to shoot
at the terrified
horrified crowd.

Thursday, 3 April 2025

Raighnbow - Sharah Parks

Biutafel cullers
Alll twingcling in the scki

Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Here I stand - Simon Ng'uni

A man. Borne riddle in places.
This curvature of space. All that needs to fill,
Only a stroke. Working to undo errant stitches
More than a needle thread. A loom with which to.

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

That World of Rapture - Kim Su-yeong

Even at the sound of the song
Of the flying creatures that pass over the roof where l live
I try not to be enraptured.

Monday, 31 March 2025

Casino - Rasha Omran

I am “unlucky:” I deal cards, then stare as the others handle them with deft fingers and win

Sunday, 30 March 2025

Doubting With Faith - Jordan Legaspi

I cannot tell if God exist
But I believe God does
I cannot say God is this or that
But I feel Gods presence
I cannot prove what I believe
But I cannot disprove God

Saturday, 29 March 2025

The witch - Francisco Gorrindo

Drowning this scream
that rises up from my chest
and arrives on my lips full of malice,
I return to your side, with my hands tied,

Friday, 28 March 2025

There was a beauty - Attila József

There was a beauty. There was sweetness.
I contemplated
a delicate rose.
And reality smashed down on me
like a loose boulder.

Thursday, 27 March 2025

staircase from which amman is seen burning - Zein Sa’dedin

on the first day of eid, on the steps outside          
the archaeological museum, baba and i watch

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

The Language - Gerrit Kouwenaar

Birds are owning the language 
I am too man to fly 
I stand on the world like a building 
constructed and thick from earth

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

A message from a lost soul - Esther Ayak John

Hello! Hello! Are you hearing me?!!!
Peace, A simple term but hard meanings
But some people don't face her dealins
She works in both actions and feelings
While most people try to take her peelings.

Monday, 24 March 2025

Incomplete silence - Lêdo Ivo

What an incomplete silence among so many sounds!
Now, and only now, they are trying to tell us
that they loved and they forgot, and always remained far
from any final truth. Love is an unredeemable
debt contracted in the dark
and only death can free the debtors from default.

Sunday, 23 March 2025

Uriah - Theophilus Kwek

There were rumours, even in the camp: how she would call
to passing merchants, bathe on the roof. Sell what was mine,
ours, night upon silken night. Once, pitched near Jerusalem,
I broke ranks in the evening, left my dagger by the door. Found her
painting her lips in the mirror, jewellery strewn across the floor.

Saturday, 22 March 2025

The world is an open sea and you’re my anchor - Farhan Ejat

The world is an open sea and you’re my anchor
 
Time of hardship and despair
You’re my savior
 

Friday, 21 March 2025

I don’t like the song of time - L Ölziitögs

I don’t like the song of time.
From the song of time,
I hear my mother’s steps, growing distant.

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

A fleeting moment - James Julius Catalyn

But for a fleeting moment,
I travel back in time
To the days of my youth
And I remember a happening, a tune,
A softly spoken word, a caress;
So real, so very real.

Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Be our guest - Alykul Osmonov

Our house is waiting for the guest with open doors,
The tastiest dishes for guests – that’s understood.

Monday, 17 March 2025

Chestnuts - Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger

On the smooth, bright path
They lie, scattered and subdued.
Brown, like a soft mouth smiling
Full and round and finely shining,
I hear them like a rippling Etüde.

Sunday, 16 March 2025

When vi’lence leads to vi’lence - John Miller Campbell

When vi’lence leads to vi’lence
and pain just births more pain,
when savagery keeps cycling
and hoped for peace seems vain:

Friday, 14 March 2025

The new world - Sabri Rahmouni

I walk around carrying a knife in my coat
Because this world has become terrible
And on TV they warn us against each other
Now no one is safe

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Has love been blood-written - Hadraawi

Has love been blood-written
has marrow yet
been poured for it
a person peeled
the skin from their back or ribs

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Pan is the Speaker - Diodorus Zonas

Nereids, Nymphs of the shore, you saw Daphnis yesterday, 
when he washed off the dust that lay like down on his skin; 

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

Opinions no Pinions - Lâmiî Çelebi

Oh,—show—no vain triumph o’er thy neighbors!
They—may—lay snares for thy shameful fall:

Monday, 10 March 2025

O Love Divine! - Alexander Chavchavadze

O love! O mighty love! your power enslaves and holds the heart in thrall.
Even monarchs bend their knees to you, and on your shrine prostrating fall.

Sunday, 9 March 2025

Beauty Will Save the World - Tihomir Jančovski

The day was nothing special, an ordinary rainy day.
I didn’t know that I would be afraid to fall asleep in the evening.
For sometimes, I’m dying at night.
I have died in the dreams of others and in those of my own.
So, it would not be the first time.

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Lakansyèl - Émile Roumer

In the darkest of nights,
A rainbow emerges,
Arching across the sky,
A symbol of hope.

Thursday, 6 March 2025

Cowichan Bay - Charles Van Gorkom

At Cowichan Bay,
On a hot day,
Thankfully,              
I sit in the shade on an old wharf.

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Yola so far - Eduar Ramos

This letter is for you,
grandma Yola.
I love you so much grandmother
and from that day where you took
me to live with you.
I couldn’t live with my step dad Tono.
Because my mom Yolany
went to the United States
so that I and my brothers
Would have a better life.

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

untitled - Henry Parland

I have drunk mineral water at Kämp
and applied Eau de Cologne at Gamla Passagen
and called
to say I’ll be back at 1:10.

Monday, 3 March 2025

In an Oppressed Country - Gerhard Fritsch

They turn stiff as scarecrows,
angry, bent, in the middle of the field,
if someone drives past along the road.
One of them, the
people in motion.

Sunday, 2 March 2025

The Hymn of Glory - Judah He-Hasid

Sweet hymns shall be my chant and woven songs,
For Thou art all for which my spirit longs—
To be within the shadow of Thy hand
And all Thy mystery to understand.

Saturday, 1 March 2025

Sisters, you sold your jewellery - Hawa Jibril

Sisters, you sold your jewellery
 
Depriving yourselves,
Enriching the struggle.

Friday, 28 February 2025

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.

Thursday, 27 February 2025

No Life - Aminath Neena

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

Wednesday, 26 February 2025

Being a Palauan - Hermana Ramarui

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

Tuesday, 25 February 2025

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.

Monday, 24 February 2025

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.

Sunday, 23 February 2025

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 —

Saturday, 22 February 2025

Hour of sadness - Israel Emiot

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

Friday, 21 February 2025

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.

Thursday, 20 February 2025

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.

Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Fountain - Astrid Cabral

Fountain:
Somersault of rain
In a mortar of stone.

Monday, 17 February 2025

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.

Sunday, 16 February 2025

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.

Saturday, 15 February 2025

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.

Friday, 14 February 2025

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. 

Thursday, 13 February 2025

The Gallery - Elena Alexieva

I am whispering in your ear:
we are passing, thunderously,
through the tunnel where
this girl was...

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

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
 

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

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.

Monday, 10 February 2025

Way - Tristan Tzara

What is this road that separates us,
Across which I extend the hand of thought?

Sunday, 9 February 2025

Munajat - ‛Arif

O Lord, to thee is never a beginning, neither end; 
Thy mercy's ocean, limitless, doth over all extend. 

Saturday, 8 February 2025

Just a moment - Debebe Seifu

Is it in the power of angels
         or mankind
too grant me just a moment
         out of time?

Friday, 7 February 2025

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.

Thursday, 6 February 2025

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.

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

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.

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

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.

Monday, 3 February 2025

Tuna - Kumalau Tawali

Tuna you are the mirror of the blue
Tuna you are the pain in my veins
Tuna you are lord.

Sunday, 2 February 2025

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

Saturday, 1 February 2025

Ossuary VIII - Dionne Brand

Havana, Yasmine arrived one early evening,
the stem of an orange dress,
a duffle bag, limp, with no possessions

Friday, 31 January 2025

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…

Thursday, 30 January 2025

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

Wednesday, 29 January 2025

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,

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Monday, 27 January 2025

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.

Sunday, 26 January 2025

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!

Saturday, 25 January 2025

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.

Friday, 24 January 2025

Realities of Island Life - Farah Didi

narrow
wind kissed roads,
unpaved with
coral stones,
must be
swept twice daily,

Thursday, 23 January 2025

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.

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

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.

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

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!

Monday, 20 January 2025

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.

Sunday, 19 January 2025

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 --

Saturday, 18 January 2025

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.

Friday, 17 January 2025

The wooden Christ - Faustas Kirsa

In his fathers' home, a farmer who's a hundred 
Carves a wooden model Lord that works some wonders.

Thursday, 16 January 2025

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

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

In the Ashtray - Vasko Popa

A tiny sun
With yellow tobacco hair
Is burning out in the ashtray

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

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!

Monday, 13 January 2025

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.

Sunday, 12 January 2025

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.

Saturday, 11 January 2025

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….

Friday, 10 January 2025

A Song of Winter - Alexander Bathgate

Bird on the leafless bough. 
Summer has fled;
Bird on the leafless bough, 
Flowers are dead.

Thursday, 9 January 2025

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.

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Shepherdesses' song - Gil Vicente

Turn away your eyes from mine,
O my life and consolation! 
Wherefore fill me with such passion?

Tuesday, 7 January 2025

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: 

Monday, 6 January 2025

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?

Sunday, 5 January 2025

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!

Saturday, 4 January 2025

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 

Friday, 3 January 2025

They say that the night - Zahra el Hasnaui

They say that the night
repossesses
your indigo, violet,
and cobalt tones.

Thursday, 2 January 2025

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.