Rosa Chávez

My wandering heart will carry you on her back so you can sleep

My wandering heart will carry you on her back so you can sleep
My wandering heart will take you in her backpack so you don’t get lost
My wandering heart will write you a dream so you don’t wake up
My wandering heart will hide your name so you don’t leave
My wandering heart will bury the stake of mystery so our feet can rest right at the center
My wandering heart, my nomadic heart, my solitary heart,
will make a home on the land that was stolen from her.

The eyes of the disappeared

The eyes of the disappeared
look inward
and can’t close, bound by time
their names float in the wind
like a flag that belongs to no one
they say goodbye waiting to return.

May my heart bloom when it stops pumping red ink, may it burst into small thorns

May my heart bloom when it stops pumping red ink, may it burst into small thorns

and yellow flowers, may it be painted with nij and engraved with animals and two-headed birds.

May my heart dissolve in the earth and grow into a pine, may it see through the eyes of

an owl, may it walk on the legs of a coyote, may it speak with the bark of a dog, may it heal

in the quartz of caves, may it grow on the antlers of a deer.

May my hearts be bound by a colored serpent, so they won’t mistake their owner,

so they’ll be marked for me to find once more on the path from here to other worlds.

Rosa Chávezis a Maya K’iche’-Kaqchikel poet, playwright, artist and activist who is Guatemala Program Coordinator for the international feminist organization JASS Mesoamerica. She is the author of several poetry collections: Casa solitaria (Editorial Oscar de León, 2005), Piedra ab’aj (Editorial Cultura Guatemala/Editorial Casa de poesía, 2009), Los dos corazones de Elena Kame (Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 2009), El corazón de la piedra/Ri uk’u’x ri ab’aj (Editorial Monte Ávila Editores Latinoamericana, 2010), Quitapenas (Editorial Catafixia, 2010), and the verse play AWAS (Editorial Catafixia, 2014). Her poetry has been widely anthologized and translated into French, Norwegian, German, Hungarian, and English.

Gabriela Ramirez-

Chavez is a Guatemalan poet, translator, and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her translations are forthcoming in CentroMariconadas: A Queer and Trans Central American Anthology and her original poetry has appeared in literary journals and is anthologized in The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (2017). She has received scholarships from the Kenyon Review Translation Workshop and the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop.

SALEY Boubé Balo

I

The First Cry

A heavy silence
Weighs on the spirits
Relatives reunited
Welcome the cherub with prayers and wishes
The blessings of the ancestors
Forgotten in the vaults of memory
Congratulation !

A mother’s sighs
Between life and death
And the joy of childbearing
And buried pain
In a body drenched in sweat
Lying in front of a matron
Holding a knife in hand
While praising a few words
From grave hallowed words
Barka!

A red-headed margouillat
Rigorous skin that stands the test of time
Waiting on a frame for deliverance
Asks himself :
Is it a girl
Is it a boy
If it’s a girl bless her
She who knows the value of a life
Who gives birth in pain
who agrees to die
For others to live
If it’s a boy, let him be born dead
He who is born with hatred in his eyes
He who grows in the love of war
Who kills for the pleasure of killing.

What name will he have
If it’s a girl
The name of a prophet
There never was
woman is not created
To give birth to a prophetess

If it’s a boy
What an embarrassment
To choose among the twenty-five sent
Prophets and others
Carriers of true or false messages
May the milk of the ancestors be refreshed
For the well-being of the little angel.

And suddenly !
An innocent cry
Announces the coming into the world
Of a child
Born from a mother’s womb
And not that of a father
Is it joy or sadness
What hides this candid call
Or the fear of facing life
In an anxious world
For fear of war?

Congratulation !
Welcome to the CHILD world
Time will teach you later
Facing the sad reality
Of the cantankerous human condition
The temple of iconoclastic priests
And voracious imperialism
Who devour the belly of mother Africa.

II

THE WAR

I am the gallant and charming beauty
Elder Daughter of Revengeful Hatred
What the flattering bards sing
Admired by tragedy historians
Courted by the peoples of the universe

I am the beacon of distant horizons
That attracts bloodthirsty men
In search of glory, gold and powers
Without faith or law other than disastrous madness
And the short dream of anticipating the apocalypse

I am the beguiled atheist goddess
By blinded priests and disciples
Who dictates satanic desires
That apply naive followers
Without dispute or murmurs.

I am the siren with the melodious voice
Who bewitches pretentious suitors
Eager to conquer the whole universe
Burning fauna and flora in their path
By burying the human without burial.

I am the faithful bride of death
With which I live for the worst
In infinite time and space
Like sworn twins
Sharing a macabre soul.

I hate my eternal rival, peace
The Misunderstood Goddess of Eden
For his love of the peaceful life
By warmongering warlords
Shepherds of the people to the fronts.

I walk on the ruins of cities
Leaving behind widows and orphans
Who only have their tearful eyes
To implore disaster accomplished
In the hearts of the helpless living.

REMEMBER

Often
remember for a moment
Life is so short
And ephemeral
Like the lightning of the day

Often
remember for a moment
Life is so beautiful
Let’s forget about death
Hanging around our neck

Often
remember for a moment
life is so sad
Let’s forget the joy
Only real moment

Often
always remember
Everything has a beginning
Everything comes to an end
And that in the end there is death

.

SALEY Boubé Balo was born in Zonkoto-banda (Loga). After his primary studies in Loga, high school in Dosso, he entered Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey where he obtained a master’s degree in Modern Literature. He continued his postgraduate studies at the universities o Abidjan (Ivory Cost) and Ilorin (Nigeria) culminating in a PH.D in literature in 2006 (Oral literature option) and lecturer on the issue of the challenges of traditional cultures in the local development of postcolonial Africa. Since 2011, he has been a teacher-researcher at the University of Zinder, served as head of the University of Zinder, served as head oh the Literature, Arts and Communication Department (LAC. 2013-2016) then Technical Advisor to the Rector of the University of Zinder (2015-2020), Director General of the National Institute of Arts and Culture since December 11, 2020. He is an active member of the World Poetry Movement (WMP).
Publications

– Errance, Editions L’Harmattan Togo, 2023
– Gouttes de larmes, Edition Les Impliqués, Paris, 2018
– Sargadji, l’indomptable, Editions Jones –Co, Paris, 2013.
– Le Fils du Sage, Afrique Lecture, Niamey, 2010
– Tébonsé ou le destin d’un enfant de rue, Afrique Lecture, Niamey, 2009
– Bandado, la petite fille aux paupières noires, Afrique Lecture, Niamey, 2010
– Dottiijoyze (zarma), édition Albasa – 2PEB, Niamey, 2003

Francesco Favetta

Mom

whisper of love
silent rustle
in the cradles you love
in the silence of the nights.
Looks
and love songs
those light hands
and the caresses on the faces
of children born in pain.
Mom
they are ointments
those words of yours
whisper in the night
to the chant of the lullaby.
Still your breath
on the skin and lips
pink mom in heart
your every smile
it is a wonderful flower.

These words like swords

The words remain silent
but soon the truth will be Light
with strength and courage
the universal verb
it will thunder in the cities of the world
in the voices he will find the way
the freedom of human thought.
These words will be the swords
will be the different realities
the history and the future
everlasting clothes
worn by warriors
fearless men
archers of life and time.

Brothers

They
they are in us
and we are
They.
Brothers
same blood
equal loves
thorns and pains
joys and songs
we are family.
Distances never desired
roots intertwined in the heart
and still love
in our eyes
our dreams and flowers
to live together.

Is love tears and Is love tears violence!

It is love that then
sleeps in mud and pain
forcefully torn from the earth
afraid of human violence
hidden beyond borders
silent desert in the world
dies in the silence of the truth.
Is love tears and violence
wear elegant dress
it shows kind on the face
dirty inside of feelings
poisoned by rabies
and eyes blinded by evil
that kills the beloved beauty.
It is sleepless and wounded love
ready to become a legend
in the mouth or in the blood
love watches over mothers
women and wives in wars
the souls who fell victim to the song
once the beloved cup married.

Sing again man!

Sing man
sings life
hears the days
and to the deeds of the heart
don’t let yourself die
inside this envelope
in this endless night.
Still a man
dance and laugh
jump on the edge of the imagination
tell your dream
never be afraid
to show your eyes
your reasons
every feeling inside you.
Man of reason
wind man
man of silence
your courage still screams
give your strength to the stars
in the night of the world
drowns without hesitation
all pain and fate
chained to the events of life.

The poet Francesco Favetta was born in Sicily in Sciacca, he has always loved poetry, writing verses, but above all culture, food for the soul: culture is Freedom, it is Free Spirit, it is Soul in Movement, not it should never be harnessed!
In 2018 he was awarded by the Accademia di Sicilia, Academician of Sicily.
He has been published in various anthologies and in various magazines, among which, we mention a few:
international magazine The Poet;
Revista Azahar who edited the first Sylloge of Poems in Spanish: Encantamiento y Palabras como Plumas;
Anthology The Silk Road Anthology: Nano Poems for Africa; “Poetic Galaxy Atunis”;
WorldSmith International Editorial; OPA The Poetry Journal; Inumbrable magazine; Magazine Polis; rank of minister in the Order of the Titan and publication of a lyric in Octobermania;
international literary magazine Kavya Kishor in Bangladesh;
international journal of language, literature and culture “Petrushka Nastamba” Serbia; international magazine, Namaste India and Certificate of Appreciation;
Different Truths social journalism platform;
Cisne Magazine Digital;
Humanity St. Petersburg magazine; fourth Panorama International Literature Festival Spain, delegate for Italy.
He founded a theater company in Sciacca: “Theatrum Socialis Sciacca”, and a Lions Club, the “Sciacca Terme”.
Finally, the poet Francesco Favetta is convinced that poetry will be the weapon with which humanity will make their lives free, and furthermore beauty will always be a truth that will never be buried:
from the times and events of daily human life!