Insomnia - Farhan Ejat

I remember one day someone I’ve met
Told me a story hard to forget
Asked me how well do I sleep at night
And if it’s true that bed bugs bite?

My desire... - Nadezhda Zaharieva

My desire is to find a shelter
In some god forsaken wilderness,
Bathe in virgin dew-drops Eden's water,
Drink a scent of herbs – luxturiaters
And lie-down in cradle-greenery;

America is a Gun - Brian Bilston

England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree

America is a gun.

The parish church - Julio Herrera y Reissig

In blessed silence vegetates the place;

The wax-faced virgins sleep in their attire

Of vivid velvets and discoloured wire

And Gabriels trumpet wearies on his face.

Crossing the Ngang Pass - Bà Huyện Thanh Quan

The sun sets just as I reach the Ngang Pass,
Where plants jostle with rocks, flowers with leaves.

Narrow Street - Judita Vaičiūnaitė

Where the yard like a sea shell guards
        the tiny graceful church,
where green shutters and windows open
        onto the sooty snow,
on the pavement's cross section,

The Five Senses - Philomena Isitoto

I like the smell of new-ripened oranges;
And newly picked yellow pumpkin;
The sweet smell of roasted pig;
The colourless smell of hot taro;
The passing salt breeze of the sea;
And the scent of flowering shrubs.

Leavetaking - Ibn Jakh

On the morning they left
we said goodbye
filled with sadness
for the absence to come.

They - Onchoka Ongoro

In the town’s shadows, they paraded
Like overlooked heroes on an unwritten script.

Opening - Kewulay Kamara

Peace!
We’ve gathered in the name of Allah
May we disperse in the name of Allah.
Let it be.

The Words of the Candle - Naim Frashëri

Here among you have I risen,
And aflame am I now blazing,
Just a bit of light to give you,
That I change your night to daytime,

Ultima Thule Sendeth Greeting: Part III - Matthías Jochumsson

Hear, Albion,
hear peoples all,
an old man’s words 

from Ultima Thule! 

Ultima Thule Sendeth Greeting: Part II - Matthías Jochumsson

Young was I wont —

now four-score years— 

to fashion words
in Odin’s tongue;

Ultima Thule Sendeth Greeting: Part I - Matthías Jochumsson

Hail to thee, Albion! 

Ultima Thule
sendeth salutem

Bygones cannot by bygones - Faustas Kirsa

Bygones cannot by bygones.
Only streets and squares have forgotten the smell of fire.
Only fields
have forgotten the taste of blood.

Of the text - Juan Calzadilla

           Some have experienced the feeling of poetry to such an extreme degree that the fact of having expressed it in their lives with the same intensity by which they would like to have written it, has incapacitated them and, for that reason, exempted them from putting it into words.

Get Down Ye Angels - John Agard

Get down ye angels from the heights.
Try a few of earth’s numinous delights:
the orgiastic rustling of the grass.
The wind’s brazen feather tickling your arse.

Roses - Suzanne Urbanczyk

Roses are red
Violets are blue

A beautiful start to the end of the world - María Turrero-García

No embers fell from the sky

No bells were heard

Lucky Men - Partaw Naderi

When your star is unseen in this desolate sky,
your despair itself becomes a star.

Ulysses - Miguel Ángel Asturias

Close friend of dreams, Ulysses,
Returned to his fog-bound destiny,
A homecoming from foreign countries,
Back to his own. A salty memory.

Hero and Leander - Musaeus Grammaticus

Neighbours that faced across the narrowing seas,
Lay Sestos and Abydos, and on these
Love bent his bow; a single arrow flamed.

Today I do not want to be a doctor - Glenn Colquhoun

Today I do not want to be a doctor.
Nobody is getting any better.
Those who were well are sick again
and those who were sick are sicker.

Puddles - Uroš Zupan

At 8.10 in the morning I was exactly
43 years old. Long blots of sunlight
are broken off by sharpened shadows. The clouds

Blinded by Love - Rycha Heemachal Devi

I wandered like a lost soul on a velvet dark night,
searching for the moon to illuminate my life.

The Wishes - Johannes Ewald

All hail, thou new year, that apparell'd in sweetness 
Now spring'st like a youth from eternity's breast! 
Oh! say, dost thou come from the bright throne of greatness, 
Our herald of merey, of gladness, and rest! 

Splashes of Light - Mahmud Yussop

It is in times of darkness
That the brightest splashes of light are seen
Just as the dreamer is awakened
He sees the brilliance of day

Snow Fell On Winter Gardens - Galaktion Tabidze

Snow fell on winter gardens,
a coffin was brought out
and the standards unfolded
caught by the dishevelled breeze.

To Ausonius - Paulinus of Nola

I, through all chances that are given to mortals,
      And through all fates that be,
So long as this close prison shall contain me,
      Yea, though a world shall sunder me and thee,

Once the wind - Shake Keane

Once the wind said to the sea 

"I am sad."

And the sea said "Why?"

Babylon - A G Stephens

Babylon has fallen! Aye; but Babylon endures
Wherever human wisdom shines or human folly lures;
Where lovers lingering walk beside, and happy children play,
Is Babylon! Babylon! for ever and for aye.

To the Dear Memory of Mishginiz Khanim - Nigar Rafibeyli

Oh, what a beautiful woman has passed away,
I feel as if my own soul has just left my body.
The inspiring shrine of a great poet
Has closed, closed her eyes forever...

The Unknown Snipers - Boghos L. Artinian

I will never know
how many times snipers had had me
clearly in their view,

Elders of revolution - Thabang Waba Moabi

They lived by the amount of hope they had
Life being the only time they had, measured by the rise and fall of the sun
Upon the sky they called up light to lead their odyssey

Epigram to a Friend - Kasım Pasha

Thine entertainment, honest friend, had one insufferable fault,—
Too little salt was in thy songs, too much about thy meats and salads:

The Master’s Touch - Horatius Bonar

In the still air the music lies unheard;
In the rough marble beauty hides unseen:
To make the music and the beauty, needs
The master’s touch, the sculptor’s chisel keen.

Song - Olof von Dalin

Magpie sits on the old church spire,
The goose in the oven roasting;
And he who has his heart’s desire
Has no need for idle boasting. 

A small quake - Eugénio de Andrade

There is a small quake in some place or other
as you say my name.

I loved you blindly and fully - Ilyas Zhansugurov

I loved you blindly and fully
On the golden beach of Irtish

Lament for the Fall of Seville - Abu al-Baqa' al-Rundi

Everything declines after reaching perfection, therefore let no man be beguiled by the sweetness of a pleasant life.

We Care in Silence - Ghenname Zohra

People are deaf
they cover their ears for not to hear
the taken life

Empty Me of Everything But Your Love - Abdullah Ansari

Lord, send me staggering with the wine
Of Your love!

The Bells - Śrî Ānanda Āchārya

Alone all night I watched the stars 
        through the opening in my Cave, 
And the springing rays of the Northern 
        Light came as welcome guests to 
        my door, 

I saw my hand - Oktay Rifat

While drinking water I saw my hand
Softly fuzzed with pink holes
I said hi there, hi there hand of mine
Pick up a wineglass pick up a fork pick up a pencil

And when the time comes avoid
Picking up a sword picking up a gun
My brave young lad my lion my lovely one

My land - Martin Camaj

When I die, may I turn into grass
On my mountains in spring,
In autumn I will turn to seed.

Obstinate - Ephrem Seyoum

When your good-for-nothing lover
said the beginning and end of
wisdom
is in the smoking of a cigarette
you laughed

GSIS XIII: 745 - Izumi Shikibu

If completely
Cold were we

Oh, teach me - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger

Oh, teach me, thou forest, to testify glad,
As in autumn the gloom of thy yellowing leaf,
That my spring cometh back after winter the sad,
That my tree gleameth green after mournfulness brief.
The roots of my tree stand strong, deep, and divine
In eternity's summer; oh, why then repine?

Lift the goblets, loud and glinting - Jens Peter Jacobsen

Lift the goblets, loud and glinting
That the burgundy is tinting
Red as dusky rubies are.

Let him be - Hazeem Hazmi

The boy that walks alone from school
You see him not knowing how he feels
He sits there empty away all that is real
You don’t know anything

Looking over the sheep one evening - Danzangiin Nyamsüren

The shapes of homesteads, like a hundred white sheep,
blench the summer pastures like a growth of mushrooms.

Caprice (A Summer’s Day, Sydney Harbour) - Louis Esson

Blue and gold, and mist and sunlight,
Veils of colour blent and blown
In melodic monotone.

Past Joys - Rodriguez Lobo

Dear Tagus, what immeasurable space
Our present from our former lot divides!
Glassy of yore, now turbid are thy tides,
Once smiles my brow adorned, now tears deface.

Pleading - Arthur Leslie Salmon

Will you come homeward from the hills of Dreamland,
Home in the dusk, and speak to me again?
Tell me the stories that I am forgetting,
Quicken my hope, and recompense my pain?

Definitions - Sara Vanégas Coveña

Memory is a bird
migrating
between my heart and the void

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;

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”.

O the Chimneys - Nelly Sachs

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

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.

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.

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! 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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

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

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,

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.

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.

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) 

A tree was chopped down - Zindzi Mandela

A tree was chopped down
and the fruit was scattered

Linden tree whispers... - Pavlo Tychyna

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

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,

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.

Epigram on Sultan Mahmoud - Ferdowsi

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

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.

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.

I Do Not Bow - Qassim Haddad

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

In a Retreat among Bamboos - Wang Wei

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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,

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Paradise. Storefront. Monte Street - Reina María Rodríguez

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

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 –

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.

Apetites - Elena Alexieva

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

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.

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.

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.

Made to punish men - Akiko Yosano

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

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.

Antonio machado - Roberto Armijo

I saw
a sprig of violets
they sprouted tears

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

Shadow - Zvisinei C. Sandi

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

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.

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.

what’s the use of poetry - Jürgen Rooste

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

does poetry reconcile
our divorced parents

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.

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.

Since the pure flow - Priest Nōren

Since the pure flow
Of Iwashimizu
Is unending,

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.

The Revenants - Mohamed Sehaba

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

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

Soon enough - Maura Eidabugi Thoma

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

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

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

Fiery Ocean Sky - Hariz Fadhilah

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

My island lies o'er the ocean - Amata Kabua

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

On Easter Sunday - Taras Shevchenko

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

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

Gentleman of the Night - Claudia Torres

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

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.

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

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. 

Female 2000 - Souad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah

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

Willow Sunday - Anonymous

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

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,

Empty Confesions of Time - Nkosilathi Sibanda

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

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 

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."

Scattered or alone - Bruce Levitan

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

Do not obey - Edouard J. Maunick

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

Raighnbow - Sharah Parks

Biutafel cullers

Alll twingcling in the scki

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.

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.

Casino - Rasha Omran

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

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

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,

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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
 

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.

What is happening beneath the earth - Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo

What is happening beneath the earth
at the remote nadir?

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.

Be our guest - Alykul Osmonov

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

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.

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:

Sunset - Amin Kassam

warm scent
lingers

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

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

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; 

Opinions no Pinions - Lâmiî Çelebi

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

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.

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.

Lakansyèl - Émile Roumer

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

Cowichan Bay - Charles Van Gorkom

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sisters, you sold your jewellery - Hawa Jibril

Sisters, you sold your jewellery
 

Depriving yourselves,
Enriching the struggle.

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

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.