Identity Poems
Passport
by Mahmoud Darwish
They did not recognize me in the shadows
That suck away my color in this Passport
And to them my wound was an exhibit
For a tourist Who loves to collect photographs
They did not recognize me,
Ah... Don't leave
The palm of my hand without the sun
Because the trees recognize me
Don't leave me pale like the moon!
......
September On Jessore Road
by Allen Ginsberg
Millions of babies watching the skies
Bellies swollen, with big round eyes
On Jessore Road--long bamboo huts
Noplace to shit but sand channel ruts
Millions of fathers in rain
Millions of mothers in pain
Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of sisters nowhere to go
......
O Me! O Life!
by Walt Whitman
O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the
foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I,
and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the
struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see
around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest me
......
i am a weight
by imi dia
i feel like a weight
no
no
in fact
i am a weight
a weight that drags me down
down
down
down
into the further pits of the earth
......
In A London Drawingroom
by George Eliot
The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.
For view there are the houses opposite
Cutting the sky with one long line of wall
Like solid fog: far as the eye can stretch
Monotony of surface & of form
Without a break to hang a guess upon.
No bird can make a shadow as it flies,
For all is shadow, as in ways o'erhung
By thickest canvass, where the golden rays
Are clothed in hemp. No figure lingering
......
Tussen ons
by Mario Odekerken
Jij kijkt,
en ik voel me gezien.
Geen woorden,
maar alles beweegt.
Als jij dichterbij komt,
herinner ik mezelf.
We zeggen niets
......
Between us
by Mario Odekerken
You look,
and I feel seen.
No words,
yet everything shifts.
When you come closer,
I remember myself.
We say nothing,
......
Zwischen uns
by Mario Odekerken
Du siehst mich an,
und ich fühle mich erkannt.
Keine Worte,
dich alles verändert sich.
Wenn du näher kommst,
erinnere ich mich an mich selbst.
Wir sagen nichts,
......
Shiver Shake Not : Song
by Ghairo Daniels
pretty or slippery are not my names
no time for docile dolly games
peaceful presence my authenticity aims
ascension not something timidly tame
Chorus : shiver shake not, I have nothing to hide
flowing with life’s lovely tide
if you cannot bear scars and shadows
go elsewhere to see what flavour marrows
......
Zuid-Limburg, mijn land,mijn heuvelland
by Mario Odekerken
Waar de heuvels ademen
en de horizon nooit plat durft te zijn,
ligt mijn land
in zachte golven van gras en herinnering.
De geur van natte aarde
na een vroege lenteregen,
de stilte tussen boomgaarden
waar alleen vogels weten wat was.
......
