burning both ends
“My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends It gives a lovely light!” Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) “I do not think there is a woman in whom the roots of passion shoot deeper than in me,” 20-year-old Millay wrote in her diary. […]
Man thinking about Woman
some thing is lost in me- like the way you lose old thoughts that somehow seemed unlost at the right time. i’ve not known it or you many days; we met as friends with an absence of strangeness. it was the month that my lines got longer & my metaphors softer. it was the week […]
3Penny Opera
In 1976, the year I started studying at the Aaron Davis Center for the Performing Arts, Joe Papp of the N.Y. Shakespeare Festival staged a revival of “Three Penny Opera” at the Beaumont. It featured Raul Julia as the murdering, whoring, Macheath, prince of thieves in stinking, corrupt London. I loved the play and had […]
The reason why
Analyst ask why. Dog say hungry. Analyst say your flesh and blood. Dog say I know. I not proud. Analyst ask about puppyhood. Dog say tough. Not enough food. Dog eat dog. Analyst say ah. That’s why dog eat dog. Dog say thanks. Dog pay. Dog go home. Dog hungry. Dog eat dog. Adam Taylor
masquerade
first i will cry then i will lose sleep over you and go quite mad for a few weeks covering my head with ashes dressing in sicilian widow’s weeds i will not care for food or drink my friends will not know what to think i’ll sing sad songs in the mirror trying a range […]
All of a sudden
Everything happened all of a sudden. All of a sudden daylight beat down on the earth; There was the sky all of a sudden; All of a sudden steam began to rise from the soil. There were tendrils all of a sudden, buds all of a sudden. And there were fruits all of a sudden. […]
Sonnet
by June Jordan Supposing we could just go on and on as two voracious in the days apart as well as when we side by side (the many ways we do that) well! I would consider then perfection possible, or else worthwhile to think about. Which is to say I guess the costs of long […]
absence
i say i am fragile brittle like glass today i say i miss you you tell me there are 8 million people in the city 30 i see each day why is it then your absence turns my heart into a wasteland? michèle voltaire marcelin
Intimates
Don’t you care for my love? she said bitterly. I handed her the mirror, and said: Please address these questions to the proper person! Please make all requests to head-quarters! In all matters of emotional importance please approach the supreme authority direct! So I handed her the mirror. And she would have broken it over […]
Poem for the Men of Our Time
Beloved life, my death takes its time. What shall I tell my man, What trip shall I propose? Kings, ministers And all of you politicians, What word beside gold and shadow Stays in your ears? Beside your capacity What do you know Of men’s souls? Gold, conquest, profit, success And our bones And our people’s […]
C’est la vie
On summer afternoons I sit Quiescent by you in the park, And idly watch the sunbeams gild And tint the ash-trees’ bark. Or else I watch the squirrels frisk And chaffer in the grassy lane; And all the while I mark your voice Breaking with love and pain. I know a woman who would give […]
honest mistake
Betcha thought you got the serious one didn’t ya you let the glasses and the books fool ya but ya got the one who sings a capella in the mirror like a blind girl at the fair with her cotton-candy hair whisperin’ prayers in the air as she lays her feelings bare and ya know […]
TGIF
Thank God It’s Friday because…. It’s live jazz night at Jazz966! With jazz vocalist, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch And what were you doing on a Friday night that was better than listening to the Ray Abrams Big Band? In fact, when was the last time you listened to a big jazz band? (My last time was […]
Happy Thursday?
Michele, Temar and Francesca Sometimes you don’t need a reason Not a birthday Not a holiday Just celebrating the day that is The friends that are New and old And the music that makes it all Allright…. Or as poet Lucille Clifton writes: come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me […]
lost and found
i learned the sorrowful craft of love when i was exiled from you i sought you in vain for so long traveling with your name a crumpled paper in my hand unfolding a map of your land asking no directions following the wind ghosts do you believe in ghosts do you believe how hope can […]
Mothering me
Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, I’d say when I held my children’s soft warm hands, teaching them to walk. At forty, I say the words to myself, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, I force my feet to move through sad days of divorce and lonely love affairs. I long […]
some days
providence is sweet to me some days when i come in rush and bliss a morning prayer on my lips my body to claim your soul i know that you hear my song some days there are trees that stand for love filled with birds and leaves afire there’s a moon glowing above pink skies […]
wing song
you feel entitled to this i know it is yours now a gift you did not expect but cling to and do not want to let it go this woman open-winged alive to kisses and dreams longing for you like an impatient hallelujah or a belated birthday with candles wishes wishes wishes moonlight singing in […]
insomnia
night flows endlessly between my eyelids refusing to enter i cannot sleep and have started to count lovers instead of sheep some names i do declare escape me and some i will confess blessed me some flung their love at me while others slipped it behind me gentle like a shadow and once i found […]
a different sky
last night i saw the moon and a lone star magnificent and new and i did not call you to sing its beauty your life so separate from mine we do not even share the darkness of the sky michèle voltaire marcelin
living
you tell me it is too much that light i say too much i am too much please say that at my funeral excessive yes extravagant but say also how much i loved you how much with heart open and hands to touch and feel not enough eyes to see lips to kiss or mouths […]
Paroles de femme…
Jeanie Bogart Mwen ekri, m-ekri, m-ekri ………………………………………. emosyon mwen sou papye bèl pawòl literati bèl chema fe klenklen (J’écris, j’écris, j’écris… mes emotions sur le papier, de belles paroles de litérature, de beaux schémas clinquants..) Jou m-kontre’w cheri tout ti mo dous krase rak plim mwen tranble, krache, vomi tout chema tounen madigriji m-bliye konte, […]
The woman in my bed….
I woke up with a French tune this morning: La femme qui est dans mon lit…The woman in my bed. Written by Moustaki for Edith Piaf when they were lovers, it is a song of praise for the older woman (she was nearly 20 years older than him). It brought back memories of one of […]
Ah! petite….
Artwork: Elizabeth Campbell “Elle a vécu, celle qui portait deux nattes brunes et une croix en or au bout d’une chaîne. Elle a vécu, celle que sa maman venait border. Savais-tu , maman, que je me masturbais presque chaque soir? Un bout de couverture dans ma bouche étouffait mes grognements. La peur d’être par toi […]
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) - translated into Spanish by Editorial ALBA as "Amores y cosas sin importancia" - all of which garnered rave reviews. Her writings are also featured in 3 anthologies published in France: "Cahier Haiti" (published by RAL'M-2009), "Terre de Femmes" (Editions Bruno Doucey-2011) "Revue Intranqu'îllités" (2012). 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 Masters from The New School for Social Research.