Månvaka

-Erik Lindorm

Månvaka:
Som en stöt jag vaknar
mitt i natten och saknar.
Månen hägrar på rutan,
det är dig jag är utan.
Jag ligger en hungrig timma
och låter min längtan glimma
som löjstim i månens flöde
kring dig och mig och vårt öde
tills värken i själen domnar
och jag somnar.

(rough!) translation:
-Amanda.O

Moon-wake:
With a jolt, I wake
in the middle of the night and miss
The moon is looming on the window pane
it is you I am without
I lie awake a hungry hour
and let my longing shimmer
like a pool of unhappy fish in the moon's glow
around you and me, and our fate
until the pain in the soul is numb
and I fall asleep.

Meaning

When I die, I will see the lining of the world.
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.
The true meaning, ready to be decoded.
What never added up will add Up,
What was incomprehensible will be comprehended.
- And if there is no lining to the world?
If a thrush on a branch is not a sign,
But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day
Make no sense following each other?
And on this earth there is nothing except this earth?
- Even if that is so, there will remain
A word wakened by lips that perish,
A tireless messenger who runs and runs
Through interstellar fields, through the revolving galaxies,
And calls out, protests, screams. 

Czeslaw Milosz

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. -Maya Angelou

Concept of America

People united
To secure their liberty
Out of many, one

-Udiah

Excerpt from Hamlet

To sleep! Perchance to dream:

--ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,"

-Shakespeare, Hamlet Act II, Scene I

13.

I want to make you

Roar with laughter as I ride

You into morning.

-Sonia Sanchez

IV.

I don't know if I've lost you, yet.

I've been writing to you,

forever.

And I wonder, if you've heard me?

-JM