Sub umbra - Leo Bradley

Shades and shadows manifold
Grace our tropic land;
Silhouettes of seagull wings,
And palm shades on the sand;
Of countless coral windy cayes,
And dipping sail-boats grand.

God weeps - Shirley Erena Murray

God weeps
at love withheld,
at strength misused,
at children's innocence abused,
and till we change the way we love,
God weeps.

Promise - Meira Delmar

Some blue and flowered morning
we shall sweetly go, hand in hand

to listen to the stories the brook whispers
before the amazement of the bare stones...

San Juan of the Tourists - Marigloria Palma

I used to run around with my seven Sundays folded
under my arm and seven pigeons crowning my brow.
I would wander the streets free and caught
in the sun’s crosshairs. The city is a herd
of feelings jammed in the traffic

Put out on the fields - Antonio Machado

Put out on the fields
a physical laborer, a thinker, and a poet.

The Illuminated Manuscript - Kenneth Steven

They brought me from Ireland, still a boy
to begin their book.

I remember the day I left —
soft bread, a silvering of geese, the sound of my mother.

The Archer - Zahrad

It is a sharp, shining
cupid's point I aim
at your heart and draw

Eclipses - Ribka Sibhatu

There are people who starve to death,
others who sleep rough in the winter

Time - Canisius Filibert

Long ago my
Ancestors knew time
They counted moons
They watched sunrises
No one needed hours
Nor tiny little seconds
Days were enough

Port - Pedro Serrano

The city tastes of the sea,
rings saltpeter bells,
sways its long arms of willow,
licks the frightened bones of its planes,
and flees in a tangled web of defection.

Lost Things - Carol Shields

It sometimes happens when looking for
Lost objects, a book, a picture or
A coin or spoon,
That something falls across the mind—
Not quite a shadow but what a shadow would be
In a place that lacked light.

Triumphant march - Rubén Darío

Comes the parade now with one accord,
Marching comes the army and the clear, bright bugling begins.
Fearsome is the glittering of each reflected sword,
With gold and steel amassing the moving paladins.

A Sad State Of Freedom - Nazim Hikmet

You waste the attention of your eyes,
the glittering labour of your hands,
and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves
of which you'll taste not a morsel;
you are free to slave for others—
you are free to make the rich richer.

I'll plant you a rose garden - Fouad Ghazi

I'll plant you a rose garden
And a little tree to give you shade
And spin for you from the light of the sun
A bracelet to adorn your hand

Butterfly - Upendra Subba

My one-and-a-half-year-old daughter
Leaves holding my finger
And runs away to catch a butterfly
Fluttering in the yard –
The butterfly keeps on flying around
And she keeps on following it.

Poem from a Prison Cell - Mohammad al-Ajami Ibn al-Dheeb

Is it my mind or my heart that I’ve lost
to you, Arab lands, home of enemies?
If you held our minds with law and reason
if you respected our opinions
then you’d hold my heart as well

The Horses - Qassim Haddad

This is how the horses gallop, dislodging themselves from the eminence of the carriage and disturbing the tranquillity of the market.

How can I tell - Karin Boye

How can I tell if your voice is beautiful.
I only know, that it penetrates me
and makes me shake like a leaf
and tears me to shreds and splits me.

Addiction - Indira Moreno

I inhale
the shadows of the calendar
that hang my fate
buried.

My Friends - Carlos Aragón

(in semi-syncopated flow)
.
Where are they? Where are they?
Where are my old friends?
Those from our little school
and those from the university…