Venice masks

Saturday, 30 January 2016

Beasties - Helen Cruickshank

Clock-leddy, clock-leddy
    Flee awa' hame,
Your lum's in a lowe,
    Your bairns in a flame;

Friday, 29 January 2016

Birdish - Astrid Cabral

Among some green or dried out leaves
there sings upon the window sill
a foreign bird.

Thursday, 28 January 2016

The Silver Maids - Carl Spitteler

High in their belfry swinging,
The Silver Maids are singing
Their matin-psalm of praise and cheer;
No angel tones diviner,
The farther off, the finer,
Nor even fails one practiced ear.

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Always for the first time - Andre Breton

Always for the first time
Hardly do I know you by sight
You return at some hour of the night to a house at an angle to my window
A wholly imaginary house

Monday, 25 January 2016

Gerontophobia - Marilyn Duckworth

I go to bed considering insulin
How much to flood the vein that is me
So that I may turn over in my grave
Composed, dead level?
But wake daily, measuring the panic dream, collecting
My thoughts. Am I still threaded?

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 344-410) - Joost van den Vondel

Chorus of Angels:
Strophe.
Who is it on His Throne, high-seated,
So deep in boundless realms of light,
Whose measure, space nor time hath meted,
Nor e'en eternity; whose might,
Supportless, yet itself maintaineth,
Floating on pinions of repose;

Saturday, 23 January 2016

Recreation - Audre Lorde

Coming together
it is easier to work
after our bodies
meet

Friday, 22 January 2016

Easy - Sampurna Chattarji

Death is easy to pronounce.
He deserved to die.
They ought to be shot.
Hanging’s too good for him.
The words fall glib.
Throwaway lines
sentencing them to death.

Thursday, 21 January 2016

I was standing - Anna Kamienska

I was standing with my sister over the patch of grave
And we were speaking about some very important things.
The boy is doing better at school. The youngest already chatters.
If you aren’t mean to people, they’ll be good to you.