The great work - Nizami Ganjavi

A hundred arms were weak one block to move 
Of thousands, molded by the hand of Love 
Into fantastic shapes and forms of grace.
Which crowd each nook of that majestic place.

South Sudanese Girl - Jackline Ateng

She is tall.
Tall and slender.
Slender and dark.
Dark and beautiful.
She is comely and graceful.
Like a giraffe gracing the glades of Mara.

Lekha Dodi - Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz

Chorus:
Come, my friend, to meet the bride; 
let us welcome the Sabbath.

“Ob​serve” and “Rememb​er,” in a single command, 
the One God announced​ to us. 
The Lord is One, and his name is One, 
for fame,​ for glory and for praise.

With the Wind - Konstantin Balmont

My soul is borne out on the wind.
Through the opaqueness of her earthly case she glitters like a sword.
She is free; she rides her body as the whirlwind the storm.

Farruca - Severo Sarduy

WITHIN A WHITE CUBE	the body is a volume
SUPERIMPOSED EDGES
THE BODY	Opaque dimensions

I Greet You - Jan Greshoff

I greet you, neighbor, comrade,
I greet you, hurdy-gurdy man, soldier,
Deliverer, farmer and beggar!
I greet you, blind fiddler!

Sevenfold (A Lamentation) - Ber Kotlerman

Tear your eyes away from the grey news stream
Sit on the floor and weep, and moan, and keen
At the sheer horror, obscene.

Occupation 1943 - Saadi Youssef

We boys, the neighborhood’s barefoot
We boys, the neighborhood’s naked
We boys of stomachs bloated from eating mud
We boys of teeth porous from eating dates and pumpkin rind

I Explain a Few Things - Pablo Neruda

Traitorous
generals:
look at my dead house
look at shattered Spain

Passiondale - Rob Esdaile

The ancient emblems of Christ’s death
have become now strangely shrunk.
The forest whence the cross was hewn is no more:
a treeless, birdless, muddy waste stands in its place;

Air Raid - Chinua Achebe

It comes so quickly
the bird of death
from evil forests of Soviet technology

The wrong rain - Jennifer Vishagan

I feel a longing, to feel 
the hug-worthy summer again.
Sleeping under a blanket of smoky fog 
that vows to weigh worse
as the winter sways in slow and ruthless.

On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam - Hayden Carruth

Well I have and in fact
more than one and I'll
tell you this too

To war mongers everywhere - Susan Nalugwa Kiguli

Tell us
Did you start a war
So our women
Could be sold to public shame?

The Hangman - Maurice Ogden

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame on the courthouse square.

Vavau and Haapai - Falepapalangi

My longing is told to the wind;
Is it a thing in which one may joy,
That in this land we abide?
Fair beckons the strand of Keitahi,¹
And the wave-beat of Tausisivatvaki¹—
Who is there content to stay here?