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Véronique Tadjo: “Cocodrilo” / “Crocodile”
Véronique Tadjo (nacido en 1955, Paris/Abidjan, Costa de Marfil) “Cocodrilo” . No es la vida fácil ser un cocodrilo especialmente si no quiere ser un cocodrilo El coco que usted puede ver – en la...
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Classic Kaiso: “Bass Man” by The Mighty Shadow
ZP_The Mighty Shadow_photograph by Abigail Hadeed . August 31st is Independence Day in Trinidad and Tobago, and, since “we” [here at Zócalo Poets] have a sentimental attachment to Kaiso, let “us”...
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Jaime Sabines: “Before the ice of silence descends on my tongue…” / “Antes de...
. Jaime Sabines (Born in Chiapas, 1926 – died in México City, 1999) . . . “On Hope” . Occupy yourselves here with hope. The joy of the day that’s coming buds in your eyes like a new light. But...
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Jaime Sabines: “Message to Rosario Castellanos” / “Recado a Rosario Castellanos”
Jaime Sabines (Chiapas, 1926 – México City, 1999) “Message to Rosario Castellanos” (Translation from Spanish into English: Paul Claudel and St.John Perse) . Only a fool could devote a whole life to...
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Rosario Castellanos: “With the other – humanity, dialogue, poetry, begin.” /...
ZP_Rufino Tamayo_Mujer llamando / Woman calling_1941 . Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974) “The Other” . Why speak the names of gods, stars, foams of a hidden sea, pollen of the farthest gardens, when what...
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Norval Morrisseau – Shaman-Artist: Armand Garnet Ruffo’s “Man Changing into...
ZP_Norval Morrisseau_Man Changing into Thunderbird_1977_panel 1 of 6 . “I am a Shaman-Artist. My paintings are icons. That is to say: they are images which help focus on spiritual powers generated by...
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Alicia Claudia González Maveroff: “Verdun”
Alicia Claudia González Maveroff “Verdun” . And now that I’m going, now that I depart, now that autumn will be my spring; yes, now that I’m going, I know that for always I will carry within me this...
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Egon Schiele: Ich bin Mensch, ich liebe / Den Tod und Liebe / Das Leben. “I...
ZP_Egon Schiele_Selfportrait_Male nude in profile, facing left_1910 . Strange Austrian “wunderkind” Egon Schiele was the son of a railroad station-master in Tulln and a mother from Krumau in Bohemia...
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All Souls Day and Dorothy Parker: “You might as well live.”
ZP_Frontispiece for Dorothy Parker’s Enough Rope_1926_taken from her 1936 collected poems entitled Not so deep as a well . In 1914, 21-year-old Dorothy Parker was hired by Vogue magazine in New York as...
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Poem for Beginning Anew: “Zamzam” by Doyali Farah Islam
Doyali Farah Islam “Zamzam” . Zamzam was found under a heap of dung, where the blood of rites fertilized stone. . … Zamzam … was found … under a heap of dung. . it was ‘Abd al-Muttalib who decided...
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Poems for Remembrance Day: Siegfried Sassoon / El soldado sincero – y amargo:...
ZP_Siegfried Sassoon in 1915 . Siegfried Sassoon (United Kingdom, 1886-1967) is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems of the First World War (1914-1918). The sentimentality and jingoism...
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Mildred K. Barya: Helene Johnson’s “Bottled”
ZP_Harlem, 1970s . Mildred K. Barya “Bottling” . The first Nigerian movie I ever watched, in early 2000—whose title I’ve long forgotten—featured a woman casting a spell on a man, bottling him, so to...
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“El amor después del amor”: Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott (Poeta caribeño, nacido en Santa Lucía, 1930) “El amor después del amor” (Traducción: Alex Jadad) . Llegará el día en que, exultante, te vas a saludar a ti mismo al llegar a tu propia...
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Thanksgiving Poems: a Cornucopia
Three Sisters Succotash, a wholesome contemporary meal using as its base the central trio of Native-American foodstuffs of the North-East: corn, beans and squash Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) “I had no...
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Poèmes sur l’Amitié pour la Journée mondiale de lutte contre le SIDA – Poems...
Emmanuel W. Védrine (Haïti) “What I want you to know” . I want you to know there is Someone who’s thinking of you, Someone who wants to help you Along the way, Someone who can take your problems away,...
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“Sentient beings can get completely lost in it”: the erotic poems of Ikkyū
Ikkyū / 一休宗純 (Zen Buddhist monk, 1394-1481, Kyoto, Japan) . It is nice to get a glimpse of a lady bathing— you scrubbed your flower face and cleansed your lovely body while this old monk sat in the...
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Primera nieve de la estación: Matsuo Bashō
. Matsuo Bashō / 松尾芭蕉 (1644-1694, poeta del haiku del período Edo de Japón) . . . Después de los crisantemos, / a excepción del largo nabo, / no hay nada. . A la intemperie / se va infiltrando...
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Fuyugomori / 冬篭り : Issa’s Haiku of Winter Seclusion
Toronto, Canada, December 2013… The early arrival of not cold but unusually cold temperatures we associate with January – normally – may have people feeling SAD – or feeling S.A.D. (Seasonal...
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Buson: Haïku d’Hiver
Yosa Buson / 与謝 蕪村 (1716-1784) . dans la rivière hivernale arraché et jeté un navet rouge . le vent d’hiver les rochers déchirent le bruit de l’eau . lune froide le gravier crisse sous la chaussure ....
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Ciencia y Fe: dos poemas por Alicia Claudia González Maveroff
La Cruz del Sur Alicia Claudia González Maveroff “Científico” . Ayer, aquí en Santiago, en otro barrio allá por Los Trapenses, conocí un señor, que juega con estrellas, no las busca como yo con poesía,...
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