Aniversario
Fue en enero el terremoto… Pasó un año Y que pasó? Pasó el tiempo… Y que cambio? Cambio el cielo… Sigue herido el pueblo Sigue de luto Michèle Voltaire Marcelin ~ 12 de Enero de 2011 Listen to a segment with Michèle on CNN Español: *Traduccíones en francès y español del poema “Rift” [...]
Promised Land
no we were not worthy of this land i swear on my life and on yours were we to beg forgiveness on our knees seventy seven times seventeen times from our lady of perpetual mercy history would not absolve us nor she we bleat like goats tethered to this land where men can be bought [...]
watersong
death seeps into my dreams water sweet poison changing color draining its dark stench bowel green rice water grey as the empty sky as corpses i travel over no requiem no libera me domine corpses soaked and dissolved in water grey rice water bowel green seeping bleeding drenching flooding into this island of ceaseless wonders [...]
Stones don’t bleed
It is time the stone made an effort to flower said Celan It is time it bled red I say And love And love And love flowed out of its wound for ever and ever Amen The calendar says September but why so short the time to dance The pace of clocks has been quickened [...]
Birdflight
When I was told I was to die Such beauty I witnessed in the sky Birds dancing round and round A flurried dance of feathers Pale as the clouds Such beauty I witnessed I want to die like a bird in autumn In full flight Sweet with song Michèle Voltaire Marcelin
caresse de demoiselle
dans l’incendie des roses qui brûlent le jardin je vis pieds nus quelle merveille je regarde encore le calendrier d’août malgré les rumeurs vaines l’été est hors d’haleine je viens à vous déshabillée en chair de femme ma peau en feu comme un soir couleur de pêche mes cheveux fous en auréole d’ombellifères tout embaumée [...]
Rain
behind mountains more mountains behind sorrows more sorrows and hunger rain or shine the wind howls and rain comes again and again falls dark and blind morning same as evening every year the same and all the months the same since i saw the light there is no god no god to watch over me [...]
love grows
love grows in this quiet house love grows with every gesture we are safe here in this sweet forever weaving breathless moments into hours spreading our treasures in the darkened room singing a sanctified sanctifying song when lust and laughter come together as we do intertwining we rise and fall and rise again and come [...]
sweet death
let it be my death in a garden behind my house between animal and flower and the murmur of water let it be in a luminous afternoon with bamboos swaying in the breeze let it be with the sun’s last ray the wind’s last breath be mine as well your name the last upon my [...]
yesterday
say this is only a dream and afterwards morning say i will emerge from this shadowy darkness obstinately I grab the day in my teeth taking steps back growling but life pulls it away tearing it to shreds blindfolded in my dream i summon up names of streets places that witnessed my life and youth port au prince streets [...]
rift
underneath the beauty was a rift in the heart of the land was a rift and the rift in the land reached the rift in our heart and we lost our people and the land… michele voltaire marcelin haiti earthquake-tuesday january 12th,2010 -5pm
Lost and Found
” Lost and Found “ is the book of love. A CD of 25 poems chosen among the 74 in the collection is included with the text . There is an intimist tone to these poems and one can feel the poet giving herself entire to her devotion toward love. Contrary to the tone of [...]
clair de lune
my love i will give you all i have saved for you joyful gifts groves clustered with flowers filled with bird cries mountains hidden behind other mountains and seas older than the earth itself my love, take the hand of this woman who knows not her left from her right yet knows unerringly the way [...]
love is in season
now has love come in my heart love unending listen how lovely the birds sing ushering the clear light of may careless forsythias bloom sudden yellowness everywhere i proclaim our love as boldly in the goldenness of this day my love has the gentlest eyes a fragrance of leaves and grass i’m reborn in beautyness in the blessedness of [...]
in defiance
splashed by moonlight wandering in search of her soul she shone facing the truth of night the darkness of dreams she shone against the green brocade of leaves the entangled nesting ground she shone amidst the sounds of air and wings the prophetic flight of birds singing their farewell note by note she shone despite [...]
pavane for a princesse
Everyone called her Princesse because she was one: a true Haitian Princess. A courageous beauty with a sharp mind and an easy laugh who loved to dance and write poetry. She had been preparing to read her last poem “Acquaintance” at a poetry reading this coming Thursday when she was brutally murdered. She was only [...]
springtime
this is the way that love began spring opened with your name with pollen-powdered flowers and leaves tangled green in the after-scent of rain fish flowed as freely as kisses all bloomed luminous and startling a miracle of the world so beautiful it’s spring again again i count the days the months endlessly passing through [...]
shattered glass
words casually falling from your mouth glass clumsily slipping from your hands shards of words splinters of glass because you do not witness blood because the tears dry quickly you do not think i suffer michèle voltaire marcelin
i am woman
( in honor of my mother who could not say these words but lives them through me) who owns me who owns my laughter i say no one a joyousness of bells resounds deep inside me innumerable seas rise in me wondrous and fierce my lavishness of spirit inexhaustible i rejoice in the world michele voltaire marcelin
dream deferred
you bring me your love like a present and say wait to open it wait with lowered voice till the right day the day of mercy some hallelujah morning you bring me your love neatly wrapped with a bow with a calendar attached when you should unleash a thousand wild stars loosen the twittering [...]
offerings
let me my love lie between your legs fragrant with rose apples and june plums with the nakedness of keneps to be plucked and sucked from the hollow of your thighs let me tongue-glide you down into salty sweet licking gently all night feeling the pulse beat through fingertips praying with rosary beads take you [...]
sebastiana
in love i always lost myself my heart open to those who passed blind wanderer in a mirror possessed like the sky’s reflection of itself dissolving night after night in the changing fire of men’s eyes seeking myself in their light in their variegated smiles capturing their desires’ breath in pretty bottles kept on a [...]
love is blind
does he love you you asked does he love you like i love you does he does he you are so beautiful and sad does he wrap himself in your skin looking for the missing perfume of wild roses falling apart in the wind does he lose himself in the jungle of your hair say [...]
lovers
i love my love and he loves me let happiness come in freely through wide opened doors so much of me waited half a lifetime for wished-for words i love my love and he loves me suddenly the lion in my bed who stands growling guarding the gates laid down to sleep when i said [...]
Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. The publication of her first novel “La Désenchantée” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2006) was followed by its Spanish translation “La Desencantada” and two other books of poetry and prose: “Lost and Found” and “Amours et Bagatelles” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2009), both of which garnered rave reviews.
Her writings are also featured in a 500 page anthology of Haitian Literature by RAL’M, the French Revue d’Art, Littérature et Musique (2009). She speaks and writes fluently French, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.
She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a MS from The New School for Social Research.