When Love is Bitter:

Poets Unite Worldwide Kindle Edition by Fabrizio Frosini (Author), Poets Unite Worldwide (Author)

 

All of us have a past love —one that turned out to be bad, or a “lost love” because of a mistake we did, or even because of tragic events—, but a love that still reverberates in our memories… and this book offers us a chance to live again, in our mind, those past moments.
Being in love is a great experience, but love can change from a wonderful condition that promotes mutual happiness to a deplorable one that results in mutual unhappiness… From despair to forgiveness, we’ll find a wide range of feelings, in these poems… Enjoy the reading!

To Read more in side 

Poems are welcome to the new Project ” ‘HOMO HOMINI LUPUS’ “racism, bigotry and greed as causes of intolerance, hate, escalating violence, mass murders and ethnic cleansing”

‘HOMO HOMINI LUPUS’
“racism, bigotry and greed as causes of intolerance, hate,
escalating violence, mass murders and ethnic cleansing”

“Mala tempora currunt”: after decades of hope that followed the major conflicts of the XX century, it seems that violence is spreading out again, in our frail “modern” world. Social, political and economic uncertainties grow, and they are fuelling the worst part of our being. Racism, Bigotry and Greed represent the major source of the river of hate that flows through the human society and sweep our most important ‘values’ away… We, as Poets, cannot remain silent…

Link to the Forum web-page:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/17-homo-homini-lupus
or
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/17-homo-homini-lupus

How this project was born:
On Sept. 18, I was asked by the poet friend Sayeed Abubakar if we could do something, as a group of poets, for the Rohingya people. I brought such request to the attention of our Group [about the so called “Rohingya crisis”, you can read also this analysis from the WP: The ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya *], specifying that we can’t publish a book exclusively focused on the Rohingyas (if we did, we should accept any request to consider single situations.. and we simply can’t afford this — indeed, following such “policy/guideline”, we could not accept to single out the ISIS issue a few months ago, and opted for a more general theme [see the “Terror .2” book: ‘United We Stand – Poets Against Terror’]). This is the reason why I opted for the broader theme under the title “HOMO HOMINI LUPUS”.

[*] Ethnic cleansing is the systematic deliberate removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous.
The forces applied may be various forms of forced migration (deportation, population transfer), intimidation, as well as mass murder and genocidal rape.
Ethnic cleansing is usually accompanied with the efforts to remove physical and cultural evidence of the targeted group in the territory through the destruction of homes, social centers, farms, and infrastructure, and by the desecration of monuments, cemeteries, and places of worship (Wikipedia).
Since the 1990s, ethnic cleansing has become one of the most widely known forms of violence directed against groups. Ethnic cleansing is related to genocide, but [..] is focused more closely than genocide on geography and on forced removal of ethnic or related groups from particular areas (The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies).

“HOMO HOMINI LUPUS” — to those who don’t like my title [sorry for these ancient memories from my high school years! BTW, hands up those who remember the ‘Asinaria’, by Plautus…  ] : to get your pardon, I’m going to start a new editorial project soon, with a free theme.. It’ll be our 2nd Autumn project. Stay tuned!

By Fabrizio Frosini

Moments of Lightness: Haiku & Tanka (Japanese Poetry Book 2)

A brief introduction to tanka and haiku poetry

Tanka poetry was born in Japan about 1400 years ago, as a form of ‘waka’ poetry —term meaning “poetry in Japanese”, to distinguish it from ‘kanshi’, that was poetry composed in Chinese by Japanese poets. The term waka originally comprised a number of different forms, most notably tanka, or “short poems”, and ‘chōka’, “long poems”. The first, the most widely composed type of waka, made of five ‘ku’ —phrase(s)— of 5–7–5–7–7 ‘on’

(syllabic units), while chōka encompassed a repetition of 5 and 7 ‘on’

phrases, with the last ‘ku’ containing 7 ‘on’. Although in the Nara period (710–794) and in the very first part of the early Heian period (794–1185), the court favored Chinese-style poetry (the oldest collection of kanshi, the ‘Kaifūsō’, “Fond Recollections of Poetry’, is dated 751; while the ‘Man’yōshū’, “Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves” — the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled in the Nara period, sometime after the year 759— contains 4,207 tanka, 265 chōka, but only 4 kanshi), shortly afterwards waka poetry definitely superseded kanshi, so much so that Emperor Daigo ordered that the waka of ancient poets and their contemporaries were collected in the first imperial waka anthology, in twenty books, with the first six given to seasonal poems (the ‘Kokin Wakashū’ —”Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poems”— usually abbreviated in ‘Kokinshū’, AD 905). Inasmuch as at that time, only two forms of waka were in use, tanka and chōka (with this second hugely diminished in prominence), the term waka became synonymous with tanka; for such a reason this word fell into disuse until Masaoka Shiki, at the end of the 19th century, revived it (along with the haiku form).

‘Utakotoba’, the standard poetic diction established in the Kokinshū, was considered as the very essence of creating a perfect waka, through a sound unit counts of 31 ‘on’, following the pattern 5–7–5 plus 7–7. Although tanka has evolved over the centuries, its ancient form hasn’t changed and remains the original five units of 5–7–5–7–7 ‘on’/syllables.

Through the centuries, the waka/tanka form has been particularly used for poems between lovers and in diaries; more generally, exchanging waka instead of letters in prose has been a widespread custom, since it is a lyric poem that, through its own flow and rhythm, can express the deepest feelings, emotions and thoughts —it is a kind of ‘painting with words’, that uses references to the natural world as well as to the inner feelings of our everyday life.

From waka, over time, a number of poetry genres developed, such as ‘renga’ (collaborative linked verse). As momentum and popular interest shifted to the renga form —in the Muromachi period (1336–1573)— waka was left to the Imperial court, and all commoners were excluded from the highest levels of waka training. Then, during the Edo period (1603–1868), renga poets were able to express broader humor and wit, through a simplified form of renga, where the use of commonly spoken words was allowed: the new style was called ‘haikai no renga’*, or just ‘haikai’ (*comical linked verse, also called ‘renku’). What was traditionally referred to as ‘hokku’, later called haiku, is the opening stanza, 5–7–5 ‘on’, of a renga/haikai —indeed, the first document to record the word ‘haiku’ is thought to be Hattori Sadakiyo’s ‘Obaeshu’, (1663): it was used as an abbreviated form of “haikai-no-ku” (a verse of haikai).

In the second half of 1600, Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), firmly committed to the cause of making haikai the equal of waka and renga, elevated this genre and gave it a new popularity. While waka and renga had belonged to the aristocratic world of court poetry and samurai culture, haikai became the genre of choice for commoners. All of the best haikai masters, used mainly the genre to describe nature and human events directly related to it, and stressed on the great significance of the opening stanza —hokku—, to give poetic relevance to such versification.

Hokku, removed from the context of renga and haikai, eventually became the stand-alone 17 ‘on’ (5–7–5) haiku poetry form; Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), then gave the term ‘haiku’ a special role, so to make it a genre of modern literature in its own right.

By Fabrizio Frosini

For more to learn about poetry Haiku and Tanka and to read  amazing images of poetry, you may guide to download the new release of the poets unite worldwide 

Let’s Laugh Together: *Poems for Children* Poets Unite Worldwide

Time to go to bed? Read a poem to your small child —or grandchild. A poem before sleeping is the best way to enter the world of dreams.. Read and Enjoy.
*
A very good poetry book for small children, up to 10 years of age.
*
From the humorous to the cantankerous to the downright silly and wise, the content between these pages will likely put a smile on an otherwise frowning face and can even brighten a cloudy or rainy day. Written by poets of all ages and backgrounds, the craft herein is both timeless and endearing; something to cherish and keep handy.. for more

La casa de mi infancia by Alexandro Acevedo Johns- Chile (Spanish version)

 

Al entrar de regreso

a la casa de mis primeros años,

me abraza el frío abandono de sus muros

como si el tiempo y los temblores de mi país

quisieran también derrumbar mi alma.

En el desván de esta casa yo soñaba con Amada,

la niña que me inicio, sin darse cuenta,

en el deseo contemplativo

y en el imposible ayuno de amar.

Diría que por su culpa me hice poeta

al mirarla pasar bajo esta misma ventana

en que ahora reflejo mi semblante trizado.

Hace algún tiempo, vía internet,

desenterré una fotografía de Amada.

Hoy, en medio de estas paredes arruinadas,

creo ver su actual imagen

bajo un graffiti de sentido obscuro

pero que me libera del acoso de mi propia juventud.

Pienso que jamás estuve ausente,

sólo fui un vagabundo que buscaba identidad,

por caminos seguros y con equipaje,

y que acaso malgastó su vida

para volver encanecido a la casa de su infancia.

(Alexandro Acevedo Johns)

My childhood’s house by Alexandro Acevedo Johns Chile

I returned to the house of my early years.

Inside to it, the cold desolation of its walls

embraced me, as if the time spent

and the earthquakes of my country

would like the demolition of my soul.

In the attic of this house I dreamed with Amada,

the girl who induced to me, without her knowing,

in the contemplation of desire

and the impossible fasting of love.

I think that by her guilt I became a poet,

when I saw her steps under this window

that right now it show, my cracked countenance.

From internet, some time ago,

I dug up a photograph of Amada.

Now, in the middle of these ruined walls,

I can see her current image as if it were

a graffiti of dark meaning

but it sets me free from the harassment

of my own youth.

I believe I was never far away,

I was just a vagrant looking for identity

on safely roads and with luggage,

maybe he wasted his life

Going back with his gray hair

to the house of his childhood.

~*~

Alexandro Acevedo Johns, Chile

— My name is Alexandro Acevedo Johns, but I sign my writing with my

maternal surname (Johns). I am Chilean, born on November 2, 1947. I’m a lawyer

and live in Santiago, the capital of Chile, with my wife Marcela. In my youth I

was devoted to poetry, as many of my generation. Now, since I retired from the

legal profession, I’ve regained my freedom to write. It is said that writing is a

very demanding activity and endanger the spirit if you’re not an optimist. But,

after the years, I feel that writing helps me to stay alive and connected

emotionally with the world we live in.

~*~

 

The Masks of Democracy by Anna Banasiak

In fear

they hear their steps

see the faces

in the trains

of thoughts

nationalists

they’re knocking at their door

in the streets of the democratic country

in a world

full of falsehood

words overwhelm

today democracy is a mask

of hypocrisy

power is aggression

in a world

full of populism

stairs without exit

everywhere

they’re hiding

before themselves

fearing of

The Masks

~*~

Anna Banasiak, Poland

— Born in Poland in 1984, I live in Łódź, in the central part of the Country. I’m a poet and

literary critic. You can find me on poemhunter.com, but a number of my poems can be read

also on different websites. I’m interested in Art and psychology.

(This poem is abstracted from the Book of Time To Show Up: Poets For Democracy Poets Unite Worldwide. For more poetry on democracy, you may go to the link here

Image (c) Flicker- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Time To Show Up: Poets For Democracy Poets Unite Worldwide (Poetry of Witness Book 6)

 

“Time To Show Up” is an evocative title for an anthology on democracy: it suggests answering a call to duty or to defense; there is the awareness that “Now My Country Needs Me,” and it comes from that same source as true patriotism does –If your country is right, celebrate it. If it’s wrong, reform it!
*
As Alexandra Alter wrote: “Like virtually everything else in the Trump era, poetry has gotten sharply political these days.”
*
Indeed, as a matter of fact, the idea of a collection of poems about democracy came to me just because of Trump. The United States of America represent the most important democracy in the world. Yet, with the election of Donald Trump as its 45th President, America’s Democratic Values as well as America’s international leadership are at risk —and this means that international stability and global security are at risk.
*
‘United We Stand’ – Poets Unite Wordlwide.

Becoming One By Sarah Louise Persson

Note: One of the Poems of Our Chain, Our Dream part two E book is published for the free reading. Poets Unite Worldwide may publish poems here randomly.

As you lay here beside me
I can see beyond your smile
Your heart, the normal charm you have
Is lost here for a while,

I touch your face
Trace your lips with my eyes
The dark handsome ruggedness
Fills my sighs,

Touch my lips to your forehead
To help ease the pain
Desire fills my entire
And it’s hard to refrain,

But be it for one night
Or be it for days
I’ll be here forever
To indulge in this haze,

Like the song of the humming bird
Our souls hold one tune
The rhythm lifts our spirits
Like the scent of fine perfume.
Trace thoughts through our touch
Through our touch, trace our thoughts
Becoming one in entirety
Feel the pulse of our warmth.

Sarah Louise Persson

~*~
Biographical Note:
Sarah Louise Persson, United Kingdom
— I was born on 14th October 1966 inWellington, Shropshire, England. I have lived in both South Africa and Denmark in the past, but have come to settle in the beautiful West Yorkshire, England, currently living in Leeds. I work in a bank but my true passion is in poetry. I used to write so much as a child but it faded into the background of my life until recently. I now write almost daily and am a very happy individual. The best thing is that I get to share my poems with such a variety of people from all walks of life and the feedback inspires me even more. A few of my poems have been published in Anthologies (e-books edited by Fabrizio Frosini). I am so proud of my achievement and believe these poems to be an outlet for many people who actually don’t like what they see in their everyday lives and want their opinion to count in so way

A Note, A Word, A Brush: Ode To The Arts

Picasso once said, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” In this work, a collection of short poems in a variety of forms that celebrate the arts are presented: poetry, dance, painting, music, sculpture, theatre, among others. Feel the dust lift and wings sprout as you read. Dehavni’s poem, ‘An Ode To Poetry,’ uses classical forms to describe the effect of poetry on a normal human—we grow wings, we learn to turn copper into gold. Similarly, Sinicrope’s poem, ‘Musicians pass the art of precise execution that springs wings,’ shows how music teachers teach their art so their students can “slip wings on listeners’ backs.”

As if wings weren’t enough—Tatiana Berdennikova shows how an artist turns a blank canvas into a beautiful painting with her poem, ‘The Artist’s Brush.’ Then Negar Gorji weaves a magic spell with her pen in her poem, ‘The Painter.’ She reveals the inner passion, turmoil and loneliness of the painter’s life. She writes, “Sitting in front of an easel like she’s gonna hug it/ Staring long hours at a picture/ That nobody can see…Still, she keeps painting…” Larry Beck reveals the life of a not unhappy poet…a poet that struggles to write. If only Beck had been able to consult with poet Frosini, who explains the true essence of poetry and the role of darkness in bringing this art form to light. Kuncheria shares a poem which describes an ancient Middle Eastern Dance that came to India by way of the silk route, titled, ‘Margamkali Dance’. A poem by Billsborough shows us how the classics intersect, how art is really one form branching out. He writes, “Which medium we use is interwoven/ With strands of other Arts we know/ We cannot stop the inter-flow/ Of memories and of our learning./ Our path is coloured by our aptitude/ Only varied by the outer form permitted by its latitude.” This collection of 48 poems from poets all over the world is a joy to experience. And be sure to read the elegant and engaging Introduction contributed by Daniel Brick. You will not be disappointed.

For Reading and downloading

Fabrizio Frosini

Our Chain, Our Dream part two

As I did for ‘Part One’, I prefer to skip a formal introduction. In its place, I’ve chosen a poem written (again) by Daniel J. Brick —you can read it just below this note—. It is a poem that speaks volumes about the feelings that constitute the basis of this book, too. I also have to mention that the arrangement of the poems in this collection does not follow the usual alphabetical order (according to the poets’ names): in effect I’ve been delighted to accept Pamela Sinicrope’s proposal for a different order. Her words give the right guidance: «I ordered the poems in our collection according to the following loose guidelines: 1. Start and end with a short strong poem; 2. Mix poems by short and long; 3. Link the poems to each other by a word or a theme. This was a challenge, but fun. I enjoyed seeing where poems linked to one another. Some of the links were truly surprising.» Have a nice reading!  Our Chain Our Dream part Two
Fabrizio Frosini
Firenze, March 2017