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 [...]
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 [...]
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
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 [...]
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 [...]
love declaration
In the gardens of my youth, trees were green and love was easy. Easy for me to feel, that is. That was before I realized others believed it was a war where all blows were allowed.
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 [...]
perfume
Smells can invoke memories, sexually arouse you, or even drive you mad… There are perfumes as fresh as children’s flesh, as sweet as oboes, as green as prairies, and others corrupted, rich and triumphant that sing the ecstasies of the mind and senses… writes French poet Baudelaire in Corrrespondances, while the great French perfumer Jacques [...]
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
reflowering
the world tonight may end tonight you have laid bare your soul so beloved am i dry branches flower into trembling blossoms as i pass by michèle voltaire marcelin
the edge of the world
twice i kissed my life away twice saw ghosts at the edge of the world where half-woman half-fish i drowned my million nights alone in deep sea sounds and reckless waters that opened wide and forever slipping into me wave after wave after wave an infinity of salt was it your voice brought me [...]
dreamscape
what magic names of places shall i whisper in the dark while you hold me so we travel at least through the night what sweet syllables of cities ancient or new what bird-laden trees in what gardens shall i offer you so that at last i see the world with you walk with me [...]
(birth)day gift of love
What can a poor poet do if pleasure is her true vocation If she knows that laughter is the last defense of freedom? A poet never knows for certain these days how to save a soul from the torments of remorse Maybe that’s why love floods through her chest and inoxerably upon finding it she’ll [...]
Nightclub
by Billy Collins You are so beautiful and I am a fool to be in love with you is a theme that keeps coming up in songs and poems.There seems to be no room for variation. I have never heard anyone sing I am so beautiful and you are a fool to be in love [...]
birdtrap
![Oiseau[1].2](http://www.lidous.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/Oiseau1.2-150x150.jpg "Oiseau[1].2")
there’s something special in your glass and in your eyes i have to be careful not look at you too much i could be snared like a bird in a trap unless i scorch my heels running away from you michèle voltaire marcelin
let me be
let me be i want to live truly the truth of my loving with a silk rose at my throat a black shawl around my hips and a hand on my heart’s wound dear love, i don’t complain it’s just another scar but let me be i want to die with a song on my [...]
stray dog bar
through the rain i hurried to the stray dog bar to meet you but you never came tonight i will drink five star rum eat peppers till my eyes water no one will know the burning of my heart or my tears are caused by your absence 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.