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 […]
lights-out
promising light my desire rose eager and unbounded incandescent like a naked bulb but you pulled the string and turned it off (it hurts your eyes you said) but on the inside the light is still burning michèle voltaire marcelin
beloved
i spent last night burning all your letters and watched all your forevers go up in smoke but the blue candles you had gifted me beloved sweetheart bastard i’ve kept them both since in your absence the sky is empty of stars i will light them to remember your eyes michèle voltaire marcelin
a lying shame
She fancied him and things were free Sweet talking and sweet nothing But as the freedom was threatening he needed reasons beyond So they talked of stars and moons and planet configurations to explain their instant connection In heels she swayed where sweet music played and danced her heart away He spoke of love and […]
i know the tune
i could not wait for you all day i could not wait i bathed in holy water saying your name wearing jewels for you perfume inside my thighs i could not i could not wait for you there were wildflowers in my eyes a sexual haze of butterflies even before you came did you know […]
Let me explain a few things…
Pablo Neruda is “the greatest poet of the twentieth century–in any language.” said Gabriel García Márquez Pablo and Gabo Explico algunas cosas (Let me Explain a Few Things), a poem written in fiery rage against what Franco’s troops had done to Madrid “And one morning, everything was burning” , is where Neruda traced his own […]
Mon mal aviaire
Tous mes amis Ne savent pas que j’ai la grippe Cette chanson Mon mal aviaire en temps d’oiseaux Si je la chante C’est pour livrer ma voix au vent Je la reprends Le cœur enroué de trop aimer Je me fais tondre Sous le gazon d’une voisine Ma peur est bleue Sous le ciel grand […]
last wishes
once more our wasted prayers over a crowd of corpses once more our whispers of affliction while we hope once more for rain this time to wash the blood from our hands you do not know you do not know the sadness seizing at my throat the sorrows i’ve memorized this life i hope it […]
Love and Defiance
“Bedil, weep not for your losses this party that is life is after all held in a glassmaker’s shop” AHMAD FARAZ enjoys a near cult status in the pantheon of revolutionary poets. Of him, Faiz Ahmad Faiz (the greatest Urdu poet of the last century) had said: “He protests against injustice as passionately as he […]
Bearing witness
“No foreign sky protected me No stranger’s wing shielded my face I stand as witness to the common lot Survivor of that time, that place” Requiem Anna Akhmatova “I have a lot of work to do today I need to slaughter memory Turn my living soul to stone Then teach myself to live again. . […]
plain talk
i have carried you everywhere you are there on the tip of my tongue i speak and in the word you appear and flow through my mouth so many words you say for a question so simple so much wine for little thirst don’t be misled by the laughter hope surpasses the question although i […]
where the water lives
i call on no savior from the forgetful heart of the earth what could i save that the wind took from my hand this is where the water lives in the silence and the lies you can see it rise you can smell it rise you can feel it rise time threatened rain threatened and […]
life is split at the seams
no one knows the exact number of the dead not even the storm herself though her course is charted and images circle the earth of wind and rain that hurl and whirl swallowing everything in their path (they laid there like dolls one next to the other they laid there as if they had been […]
Hanna
le bruit court sous la pluie et en un quart d’orange la terre fait le tour de la rumeur le bruit court que le vent a soufflé tellement fort que le cyclone larme à l’œil a crié sur la ville un chant de cygne signe d’aile cynique de fin du monde le bruit […]
pleasure and pain
pleasure and pain keep company in our bed sharing covers until one day one will surrender to the dominion of the other (i wanted to live to love you to lose myself and did not care summer might end in sorrow so i invented poems and i invented lifelines against the chaos of your going […]
agua
“Bajo la lluvia, bajo el olor, bajo todo lo que es una realidad un pueblo se hace y se deshace dejando los testimonios” La maldita circunstancia del agua por todas partes me obliga a sentarme en la mesa del café. Si no pensara que el agua me rodea como un cáncer hubiera podido dormir a […]
Lettre à l’absent
aujourd’hui je suis vide de toi je ne pense pas à toi tu n’es pas en moi tu pourrais mourir demain demain tu pourrais mourir j’aurais au moins traduit mes paroles en désir et mon désir en paroles michèle voltaire marcelin Oeuvre du peintre flamand Vermeer “Femme en jaune” (1665) : saisie dans une « […]
In the Country of the Dead
So many people die each day that our hearts refuse to register grief” All these dead Who among us will question them Will it still require a massacre and tears for the road beneath the earth to be traced for us Unless this wind that rips into us has made us lose our reason to […]
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.