Alisa Velaj (born 1982, Vlorë, Albania) is an Abanian poet whose work has appeared in a number of print and online international magazines, including Blue Lyra Review, One title reviews, The Cannon’s Mouth (UK),The missing slate (UK), The Midnight Diner (USA), Poetica (USA), Time of Singing (USA), Canto (USA), Enhance (USA), Ann Arbor Review (USA)The French Literary Review (UK), SpeedPoets (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), LUMMOX Poetry Anthology 3 (USA), Erbacce (UK), FourW twenty-five Anthology (Booranga Writers' Centre, Australia), Poetry Super Highway (USA) and Knot Magazine (USA). She has also works in forthcoming issues of Poetica, Otter, The Journal, Reunion: The Dallas Review (USA), The Brighter Light Poetry Anthology (USA), Phenomenal Literature (New Delhi, India), The Atherton Review (USA) and in theAnthology by Mago Books. Alisa Velaj has been shortlisted for the annual international erbacce-press poetry award in June 2014. She was also shortlisted for the Aquillrelle Publishing Contest 3 in January 2015. The Man’s Flood That day was another threshold A stranger stole from him his mother’s lap and his sister’s affectionate eyes Blind with sadness he stood as before a lifeless thing When at midnight his love’s shelter appeared in front of him He was in the grip of the man’s flood… Threshold To Mario The child builds a house inside the house A small hut of bed pillows A little lamp lights the tiny shelter The child reads about midgets with his mouth open And feels happy to have a tiny house like theirs Whereas Cinderella sings songs And prepares sweets for the child and his friends coming from the fairytale Outside a stormy rain falls the last leaves of trees And the wind howls like a crazy bitch with no reason at all Sometimes his mother sings to deceive the stormy rain With melodies sweeter than all the songs Ever heard going on between Scylla and Charybdis Tonight Odysseus will certainly invent an Ithaca in Orpheus’ arms Sleepy though… Five Views of Mists 1 The blind sees With the eyes of mists 2 Even trees hide their greenery In mists 3 The sun buried in mists Looks like a pale moon And the river’s memory is The bluish green oblivion of pearls 4 Cities and mists write The chronicles of the sun’s solitude 5 Mists even without solitude inside Count almost nothing… Waiting for the Winter Waiting for the winter I feel the breath of the lands that have caught cold Just because of thinking that cold weather will soon launch the assault Just because of thinking that frost is on its way to them The anxiety of leaves saddens me as well (My loves rustle with anxiety) But why should loves and lands blame us For their making haste to reach solitude Holding torches in their hands? Why should our vague memory that fails to remember When the first sunset hit it Throw blame on us Curiosity Under A Naked Moon Naked songs Under a naked moon My curiosity defeats paleness And tries to keep quiet as long as possible Look at the boreal nights for a short while, darling Something worthier than nothingness Must necessarily be hiding Beyond my curiosity and the lethargic mornings The frightened sparrows of your breath Are the first accords of the guitar lost Somewhere under the snow or amidst the moon’s bones No one knows Where other accords and other solitudes Come from or go to Come into being, die again, and live three other lives, honey Just to bring curiosity back to life for a short while… She She is calmer than her songs She falls asleep watching the twisted veins of trees She is luckier than night and darkness Blood capillaries will set fire to her moon And night and darkness will run on all fours fearing her and her moon. Translated from Albanian language into English by Ukë Zenel Buçpapaj. These poems are included in Velaj’s poetry book “A Gospel of Light” published by Aquillrellle.
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