Venice masks

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Breathing - Rajathi Salma

Everything happens so quickly
before I can feel it.

Monday 29 May 2017

Roses - Publius Annius Florus

What roses have I seen come with the morn!
Scarce born they were, yet not alike in age:

Sunday 28 May 2017

On the day of death - Peter Damian

Ah, thou bringest dreams of terror,
Thou of life my latest day,
Bringest dreams that shake my pulses,
Fill my bosom with dismay;
Sunk in solemn gloom and anguish
I behold thy parting ray.

Saturday 27 May 2017

Death thinks the Stars at Night are Scabbed over Wounds - Gokçenur C.

Death runs a shop in the Grand Bazaar on Fesçiler Street
Death thinks using foreign words from time to time very cool
Death tries to hide the existence of stripeless zebras from everyone else

Friday 26 May 2017

Tribe of Woods - Warsan Shire

I held down my daughter last night
spread her limbs across the forest
laid her out to rest
crushed berries across her mouth and
gave her my knuckles to chew on

Thursday 25 May 2017

The Premises of Grass - Eugene Ostashevsky

The Laughing Philosopher has entered
the Witless Relocation Program
Outside his window there’s a rooster
that looks like a toaster

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Elegy - Bewketu Seyoum

The fall of every leaf diminishes me,
so when I hear a rustle
I send my eyes out of the window
to look at the trees in the yard.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Terrorism not a religion - Ammar Butt

“Where is my daughter?”
The mother asks,
Not knowing that her daughter
Couldn’t survive the blast.

Monday 22 May 2017

Sunday 21 May 2017

Saturday 20 May 2017

Calls of Youth - Hermana Ramarui

Give us birth, my elders.
Stop the colonial web.
Open the door to freedom.

Friday 19 May 2017

In Your Absence - L Ölziitögs

In my eyes there are butterflies, a felt hat, mirror and a candle.
In my eyes there are women, an apple, trees and a bird.
In my eyes there are clocks, a key, cloud and the sky.
In my eyes there is everything, except for you.

Thursday 18 May 2017

Berlin. January - Salome Benidze

Step over the grey corpses of angels
shot by this bleak wall
that path will bring you to me:

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Insídia do tempo - Tina Mucavele

The chorus to the song says:
I just wish you were in my shelter during a storm
I just wish I could walk down the street holding hands with you
I just wished you could care a little about me

Monday 15 May 2017

The Shrub - Vojislav Ilić‎

A thunder stricken shrub on a grey hill it rests,
Like a dark almighty giant. And grassy ribbon dense,
Twists around his shape. And playful mountain breeze
Sways the bright flowers and trees.

Sunday 14 May 2017

Civilised Girl - Jully Makini

Cheap perfume
Six-inch heels
Skin-tight pants
Civilised girl

Saturday 13 May 2017

Flight of the Firstborn - Peggy Carr

He streaks past his sixteenth year,
small island life stretched tight
across his shoulders

Thursday 11 May 2017

Blues Fragment - Francisco José Tenreiro

For Langston Hughes

All the melancholy of nights in Georgia
comes to me
this stormy night in Europe
through the solitary voice of the trumpet:

Wednesday 10 May 2017

The Tram Journey - Milena Ercolani

You got on the same tram
only to get off before me,
your steps were slow,
your hand shook slightly,
your gaze was lit by nostalgia...

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Blood in the Kava Bowl - Epeli Hauʻofa

In the twilight we sit drinking kava
from the bowl between us.
Who we are we know and need not say
for the soul we share came from Vaihi.

Monday 8 May 2017

thirsty - Dionne Brand

This city is beauty
unbreakable and amorous as eyelids,
in the streets, pressed with fierce departures,
submerged landings,
I am innocent as thresholds
and smashed night birds, lovesick,
as empty elevators

Sunday 7 May 2017

Lamentations from paradise - Helda Marie

Did you hear the sea calling
as we rowed across the reef to the island?
The same name they gave our forefathers ages ago.
Was that what we heard as frigates hushed?
Laments of the uprooted?

Saturday 6 May 2017

April Woman - Salma Jayyusi

Poem to My Son

I am an April woman:
December ash that consumes itself
frightens me

Friday 5 May 2017

My Sinking Island, Kiribati - Lovelygal

Waves crashing onto shore
Rising higher more and more
People crying, people dying
There is no land to live on anymore

Thursday 4 May 2017

Losing the Old Ways - Theothora Fahorug

A branch was growing on a tree
very happily.
A strong wind came
and broke it off the tree.

Wednesday 3 May 2017

I give you thanks my God - Bernard Binlin Dadié

I give you thanks my God for having created me black
For having made of me
The total of all sorrows,
and set upon my head
the World.
I wear the livery of the Centaur
And I carry the World since the first morning.

Monday 1 May 2017

Hymne Monégasque - Théophile Bellando de Castro

Greetings, to our neighbours!
Greetings, to all those who are watching us!
It is important that you remember the following: