Darwin, Lincoln and…Haiti?
“That there is suffering, no one will dispute it, but according to my judgment, happiness will decidedly prevail.” Darwin(according to Beaty) “Four score and seven years ago, my heart began to break, and for a while, I did not know what it meant to be free.” Lincoln(according to Beaty) Was there a relationship between Lincoln […]
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 […]
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. […]
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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Pleasure
I was oh, perhaps 9? the very first time I heard the word Fuck. Emmanuel, the school hunk, had cornered Caterina by the back stairs of Union School and said I want to fuck you. Fuck… Fuck… Fuck. I didn’t know what it meant but the intensity with which it was said stirred something in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.