Venice masks

Friday 30 September 2016

As if you'd remember - Raúl Gómez Jattin

As if you'd remember Isabel
of the hopscotch underneath your patio’s mamoncillo tree
of the rag dolls that were our children

Thursday 29 September 2016

Not loved enough - Suniti Namjoshi

Not loved enough, nor yet quite lost,
No longer fought for, nor yet forgot,

Wednesday 28 September 2016

What The Old Man Said - Cicely Fox Smith

"Don't you take no sail off 'er,"
The Ol' Man said,
Wind an' sea rampagin'
Fit to wake the dead, —

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Evening Cloud - Gaarriye

Setting sun you're slipping
From the fading day
Heading for your hole
Hey! Are you a coward?

Monday 26 September 2016

Elene: Part I - Cynewulf

Swift in the tale of time had fleeted
      Hundreds two and thirty-three
Winters for the world completed,
      Since heaven’s Lord in low degree
In this mid-earth a man was born
To shed o’er faithful hearts a heavenly morn.

Sunday 25 September 2016

Dust we are return to it we must - Imam Ahmad Raza

Dust we are return to it we must
Adam, our ancestor, was created from dust

Saturday 24 September 2016

Sonnet - Willem Kloos

I always think of you as of a dream
In which, all through the long blest night, a face
I never saw smiles at me with a grace
No words can paint, till at the first shy gleam

Friday 23 September 2016

The Origin of Trade - Voltaire

When with a skillful hand Prometheus made
A statue that the human form displayed,

Pandora, his own work, to wed he chose,
And from those two the human race arose.

Thursday 22 September 2016

The Boat That Brought Me - Azita Ghahreman

Behind these eyes that look like mine
old names are fading away, the past lies crumpled in my clenched fist -
a coppery bird in coppery wind,
this vast place has covered me from head to toe.

Wednesday 21 September 2016

he locks the car and knows... Kees Ouwens

I haven’t yet been allotted to death
the horizon still keeps its distance
across the triple verge – the middle,
the edges – the ripe light
strokes down, the open pulse

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Grass is growing in the east - Tsogdorjin Bavuudorj

Grass, growing in the east
in yellow waves, and
kneeling and bowing

Monday 19 September 2016

Trieste - Umberto Saba

I traversed the whole city.
Then climbed a hill
crowded at first, in the end deserted,

Sunday 18 September 2016

Consecration - Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh

How great the tale, that there should be,
In God's Son's heart, a place for me!

Saturday 17 September 2016

Song of the Forest Trees - Standish Hayes O'Grady

O man that for Fergus of the feasts dost kindle fire,
Whether afloat or ashore burn not the king of woods.

Friday 16 September 2016

"Fire" Second State : Voice of Agony - Rogelio Sinán

- Give me your breeze, oh sea, your pure breeze to appease my voice and my inner core!
- Give me Lord your grace and your lungs to hold fast their air with my veins!

Thursday 15 September 2016

Venus' Rose-Garden - Publius Annius Florus

Venus a garden had, rose-bushes round —
Its lady's darling plot; once seen, beloved.

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Away from Ireland - Cathal O’Byrne

Though I’m far and very far away from Ireland,
There’s a. knot. of purple thistles on a cliff above the sea,
Like a silver censer flaming between the sky and me,
The blood-red bells of fuchsias swing around a cabin door,
Where the yellow sunlight showers down to flood the earthen floor,
Far away, and very far away in Ireland.

Tuesday 13 September 2016

The Stamp of Civilization - Max Nordau

Japan hath Western culture? So you say. O vain sophistic thought!

Monday 12 September 2016

Summons to Youth - Rudolph Altrocchi

Exultant youths who would bewail or vaunt
   The odds of love, no longer waste your breath:

Sunday 11 September 2016

Alpha et Omega, Magne Deus - Hildebert of Lavardin

First and last, great God, before thee
Come we humbly to adore thee,
Thou, whose power is all sufficient,
Lord omnipotent, omniscient,

Saturday 10 September 2016

Even now I cannot help thinking of them - George Szirtes

Even now I cannot help thinking of them
as historical. The noise they make drowns
out the radio static of the street. Grey gowns
of rain flutter or run away in a million gem
spectacular but these dark suns expand

Friday 9 September 2016

Thursday 8 September 2016

Green Gully - Wang Wei

If I want to reach Yellow Flower river
I always Follow Green Gully stream;
It coils through the mountains
      with ten thousand turnings,

Wednesday 7 September 2016

Gift - Tamim al-Barghouti

My life is a gift
Given to me
On my zero birthday.
Today I pulled out the ribbon,
Unwrapped the Box
And found lots of things,

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Sleep - Paul Kester

If I pass between thy shadowy portals
Fearlessly;
I go, where, for a little space
No echo of the world's tumult
Shall awake

Monday 5 September 2016

Sunday 4 September 2016

The Community that Lies Between - Andrew King

Somewhere between what is
and what will be,
between this present world
and a world redeemed,

Saturday 3 September 2016

Four times azure and five - Habib Tengour

Sand stone or mineral ultramarine blue
memory attaches to its rays
frail trace of a camp
to cross our lives set out in a mirror
just as hachures fade to grey
and the sky is colour sterile

Friday 2 September 2016

Harbour - Maung Chaw Nwe

They will land here.
A tree or two or three.
A ship or two or three.
Sceneries will land.
Fortuities will land.