Reverse Profile - Vladimir Martinovski

An
Error has
Sneaked by
In
The Book
Of Marriage:
The registry number
Of the bride
Lacks a digit

Surprised by day not breaking - Jean Portante

Surprised by day not breaking any more the moon
and the sun like two old underground thieves
relit the torch and set off. I'm sure that
anyone who'd seen their feeble gleam from a
distance would have felt sorry for them.

Ocean, Waves, and Wind: A Song on the Nature of Mind - Tsangnyön Heruka

Namo guru!
The ocean of mind is stirred by the wind of grasping at subject and object.
The childish take the waves of appearance as something to reject.
For the wise, the waves are none other than the water itself.

You - Bruce Levitan

If I had one wish
I would not need it
because I have you;

Sunset tears - John Kasaipwalova

The dancing wavetops poke their tongues
Laughing to cry their sadness
They swell to catch the painted sky
They bend to summon the blackness of the ocean depths
Always dancing, turning crisping fall and slide

Sea Turtle Sonnet - Zeina Hashem Beck

Our parents stayed during the civil war.
Don’t say we escaped, just that we too failed.
We left Beirut on the verge of collapse
& revolution. That clearing of hope,
where would we be without it? Ask Ziad,

Home - Pio Manoa

Beneath that tree is buried
the lifecord.
The energy that pulses
through that trunk,
up into those branches
is within us too
by a power of exchange,
of life-sharing…

Hope - Edith Södergran

I want to let go -
so I don't give a damn about fine writing,
I'm rolling my sleeves up.

Show Your Love - Akiko Yosano

I cannot bear
the faint smile
you display to others.

Why does my lover rage - Moses ibn Ezra

Why does my lover rage and tyrannize me,
      While my heart
            Bends like a reed to him?

Dedication - Bala S.K. Saho

As long as I live
I will sing my mother’s song
With her old broom
That kept our yard forever clean

The Empty Chair that Hugs Your Breath - H.MAR

The chair is still warm,
although you vanished yesterday.
Even the sky is guilty:
why will the pillow not own up to its loss?

Keys of the Better Place - Heritier

Before this distraction
Life was a simple word to describe
We were used to mingling with different people from different cultures and races.

Blindman's Bluff - Victor D. Questel

i
Ash Wednesday
and
No one goes for cane
in this island anymore.

Blissful valley: Bumthang - Kuenzang Dorji

in the southern chumey entrance
hello the swaying fagopyrum
in the eastern ura leasow
defy not the dance of yekos

After lunch - Po Chü-i

After lunch–one short nap;
On waking up–two cups of tea.

'Tis God's light that illumines the senses' light - Jalal al-Din Rumi

'Tis God's light that illumines the senses' light,
That is the meaning of "Light upon light."
The senses' light draws us earthwards,
God's light carries us heavenwards.

A Flock of Birds - Saddiq Dzukogi

    I want to force birds against the sky of my mouth.
               Beating their wings toward that infinity of songs.

Prayer and Blessing (The Hunter and the Hero - Book XII) - Bhāravi

With wonder struck the hero views 
The Lord of hosts in ashes smeared; 
He views the crescent in his locks, 
And bows before the God revered! 

Vondel's Lucifer (Act III, lines 1-120) - Joost van den Vondel

Luciferians. Chorus of Angels
Luciferians:
How oft belief proves but delusive hope!
Alas! how things have changed. We deemed no rank
Than ours more happy in this rising Realm,—
Yea, thought our state even like unto God's own,
More blessed than Earth and e'er unchangeable.—

Land of my Forefathers - Mathalea Ntaote

High in the bosom of snow-crowned mountains,
Where winds sing hymns only peaks know,
The valleys hold whispers of cattle bells,
Silent vow-taking spirits linger where my forefather’s graves lay.

The Clearing - Francisca Stoecklin

I think of you. I think of our hours of love
That we spent, so sweetly, in the wooded depths..
On damp leaves, past earnest firs,
Beech, brown mushrooms on hardly trodden
Paths, we came to a clearing.

Come, keep this Feast - Bishop Nektarios of Aegina

Come, keep this Feast, who holy things revere,
And with pure minds, your Lord adore with fear.

Mother reads my poems - Ranko Pavlović

Unexpectedly I turned up
In my parents’ house
Once full of joy
And found lonely old woman
Grown into numerous years,
With glasses on her nose
And a book in her hands.

Box of coloured pencils - Nadia Mifsud

you are my cousin, my aunt
you are my brother-in-law, my sister
you are the boy who sat next to me
on the classroom bench

Poem no. 19 - Cyro Pimentel

I hear within me fugitive goddesses
Played on from afar by pastoral stars.

Distinctive face - Anila Bukhari

I was born into a family of beauty and charm,
But I was the odd one out, with a distinctive face.
My hair wasn’t long and black, but short and brown,
My skin was not fair, but a deep shade of brown.

The Luny law - Maryam Ala Amjadi

WARNING NO (1):
This is not a poem
I’m just trying to ask you 
to hear what I’m not saying 
and I promise
these tears are not mine 

The Difference Between You and Me - Hussein Habasch

The difference between you and me
Is that you sit cross-legged,
Leisurely savoring your glass of wine
While I wrap myself around myself
As I gulp from the glass of pain at the hospital.
You post the photo of your ninety something mother on Facebook,
Still in her prime.
And I remember the complexions of my seventy something
Mother with all her wrinkles.
You see her every day and place a peck on her cheeks,
Whereas I have seen her only twice in twenty-two years.
I kiss her photo every day in longing.
God bless our mothers!