the color of wanting
what is the color of wanting my lips will guard the secret i have survived solitude life after life love after love until i came at last to you i know the color of wanting was everything before you meaningless child’s play misspent days running away at the touch of least rain wrapped in the [...]
sweet peace
how long shall we wander through the ruins of forbidden cities and lost kingdoms facing the impossibility of love how long till sweet peace is restored michèle voltaire marcelin
night poem
what is the cause of things we part and days go by it seems we belong to no one it is late in the city and i am left alone to sort out my pain what use are words that cannot bring back the face i knew and loved michèle voltaire marcelin
against my will
against my will there’ll come a day when the sudden nearness of you will not be greeted by a song words circling around my head behind my eyelids pushing their way past my teeth i will ask what lies between your body and mine what memories i can’t erase with my skin even as my [...]
tangled thread
day after day i sit and sew pieces of you pieces of me fasten you close with my feverish hands crookedly bonding us together the needle going in and out tucking in our frayed edges stitching white to mend past lies colored to embroider shared pleasures pin-pricked fingers tear-pricked eyes obstinately patching hearts trying not [...]
sweet wine
i would drink anything offered from your palm water would be sweeter water would turn to wine wine from your palm your palm wine your sweet milky wine would be mine i would drink anything that flowed from your palm michele voltaire marcelin *According to African folk tales, palm wine carried power to the first [...]
bottled poetry
“Wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson Wine and poetry have always made great companions. In regards to poetry, I have willingly followed Baudelaire’s invocation: “Enivrez-vous, enivrez-vous sans cesse…Get drunk, get drunk all the time! On wine, on poetry or on virtue – just as you please…” and I’m very fond of the Omar [...]
soul victorious
what seems to tear me alive my troubled tongue cannot explain life not being what i intended and love not forthcoming grief, a fishbone stuck in my throat pain blinding me, naked light shadows on the wall turning bright seeing another day, the only miracle so i go on living it hardly matters where out [...]
adieu
for a moment this was real for a moment i believed it but happiness long expected long delayed no longer seems probable even if it leaves me inconsolable shall we put this dream to sleep but before you turn away and walk out into the evening with your body and its dangers your scar, your [...]
i speak of palestine
I speak of Palestine by Robert L. Green, I speak of your insistence on believing what you’re told to be so blind: you must have learned what not to know to be so cold that you can say “These people do belong inside this tomb.” They cannot move or live or eat And, yes, I [...]
a sixteen-year-old girl
This girl, I can see her; I see her frail silhouette leaning against one of the columns of the Grand-Rue – the indelible image of solitude and distress. By Haitian poet Rudoph Muller, a poem that trembles with human presence: A 16-year-old girl who’s standing on the corner of Grand and Miracle Streets at 11 [...]
roleplay
she coveted the role of queen (a character cool and serene) but temperamental discrepancies (she lacked gravitas) would not allow her to be cast as other than the heroine of hopeless love the subject of men’s fancies between wild caprices and staged despair she was like berenice tearing her hair since the king was not [...]
vivaldi’s tune
it was spring it was time to bloom it was a surprise it was la belle vie it was a dance it was peaches and it was wine it was a kiss it was a silence it was the first time it was scary it was sweet and it was slow it was a poem [...]
sugarjuice
the cane fields flowed green as far as the edge of the world my thirst unquenchable i’d rip the skin filling my mouth chewing until dry straw was left until my teeth squeaked smooth no matter how much sugar juice i would suck it was never enough such stickiness remained on my hands and lips [...]
there is no help for it
there is no help for it this day to day living will wear me out my man is gone taking my heart my spirit and my song with him there is no help for it i travel again and again calming my loneliness with the rhythm of the train another season comes using my tears [...]
rue des miracles
he’d come in the afternoon she always left the door open was that a metaphor with poets you never know she ‘d be in the kitchen cooking through their stomach love comes she liked to see him eat and barefeet too what did that mean was that another metaphor she’d tell i’m on fire an [...]
thank you poem
with your hands you bless me entire surely and forever i did not know before what was mine what was written in dark ink in your palm cursed as i am with words, metaphors i lose my speech stuttering heartbeats instead watching you sleep in my bed here are my poems take them i wrote [...]
fire
disheveled barely sleeping legs opened in lust i rose before the sun locked gates no deterrent climbed walls wearing down the heels of my shoes on rocky roads hours on end so many dawns i would wake you to sleep in your bed these were days beautiful and fierce i was alive as fire i [...]
diagnosis
there was no ceremony when our love died no painful agony no friends or family gathered around its bedside no one assisted its demise it ended as it had begun sharp and sudden like a heart flash it was over so quickly: the perfect cancelled vows i erased your face in the mirrors gave you [...]
Sweet Mimi Tango
Some men like the complications of back and forth emotions the delectable sensation of exquisite skin friction Some men dream of secret missions and epic fornications Which one is the man for me? Some men look for mystery Some seek the love of the century Some go mad for this gypsy who shares her passion [...]
the promise
the wine glass broke spilling a thousand wishes like my childhood secret and the tell-tale stain on my dress shall we vow without witness freedom the only indelible promise michèle voltaire marcelin
Listen…
[N.B. Original song by Leo Coltrane. You may listen to the song either by clicking on the illustration above or by clicking on this link] She’s a sweetheart, tough cookie Soft on the inside With a quick, sharp tongue Lives by the park From upstairs, dropped the key Hello Argentina He parked for free [...]
Life Story
by Tennessee Williams After you’ve been to bed together for the first time, without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance, the other party very often says to you, Tell me about yourself, I want to know all about you, what’s your story? And you think maybe they really and truly do sincerely want [...]
goodbye, love, goodbye
my heart awaits what the stars predict brief pleasures, fears, chagrins and then goodbye love, goodbye leave the door half opened so my heart can follow you michele voltaire marcelin
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.