Journal of African and African Diasporic Poetry

Amanda Holiday Icare africain Translated by Sonia Félix-Naix Il tomba du ciel  – personne ne savait qui il était un Icare africain sa tête s’écrasa sur les dalles irrégulières d’un jardin à Clapham mais il était déjà mort gelé dans le caisson du train d’atterrissage du 787 en provenance de l’aéroport international de Jomo Kenyatta, depuis 2 heures, sa bouteille intacte, tout comme son morceau de pain  Son ami connaissait quelqu’un qui connaissait quelqu’un qui avait voyagé gratuitement comme ça sous un jet jusqu’à Paris, une nuit, avait découpé les barrières de sécurité  ni vu ni connu, couru jusqu’au train, escaladé la patte du grand oiseau de métal, s’était glissé dans un coin avec son sac, une serviette humide pour les gaz, des bouchons d’oreilles, avait avalé une lampée de triple malt, s’était mordu les lèvres, et couvert le nez avec son chiffon quand les roues ont martelé la piste de décollage et qu’il se mit à monter, monter, monter et prier Notre Père entre tes mai...

Amanda Holiday African Icarus He fell from the sky – no one knew who he was an African Icarus his head smashed onto the crazy paving in a Clapham garden  but he was already dead frostbitten in the wheelwell of the 787 out of Jomo Kenyatta international, 2 hours in, the water bottle untouched along with the bread His friend knew a friend who knew a man  who had flown for free this way under a turbo jet to Paris afterdark, cut a hole in the airfield fence no one saw, ran to the undercar, scaled the iron bird leg, tucked himself in a corner with just a bag,  damp towel for fumes, cork for his ears,  slugged triple whiskey straight, bit his lip hard,  covered his nose with the cloth as the thundering tyres pounded the runway then up and up and up in prayer Father into your hands I lend my spirit he willed himself into a trance, they say He’s living large now a Paris, sends money back western union every month end His mother is building a house in Nairobi Thus he dre...

Anayo Dioha Mbuli Elu Dịgara Ahịa Anọ Ụbọchị Anọ Translated by Anayo Dioha Dịka oge dum si agbara egwu agafe ahọ ndị ọcha, Ị na-ewete agba ụtọ n'ime ụbọchị izu-ụka m niile: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter; Eke, Orie, Afọ, Nkwọ! Anayo Dioha bụ onye ọka ikpe na onye ode akwụkwọ na obodo Naijiria. Abụ ntule-uche ya dinegasị n'ihu nsape intanetị nakwazị na akwụkwọ nke ndị The New Verse News , Queen's Quarterly , Password: Journal of Very Short Poetry , The Literary Cocktail Magazine , WordSwell Journal , Kalahari Review na ebe ndị ọzọ. O ji akara mmụta PhD na Law site na Mahadum Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. The original poem, "Ode to the Four Market Days" by Anayo Dioha is featured in Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024) and is accessible here .

Anayo Dioha Ode an die vier Markttage Translated by Antje Bothin So wie die Jahreszeiten durch das westliche  Kalenderjahr tanzen, bringst du süße Farben in die Tage meiner Wochen: Frühling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter; Eke, Orie, Afọ, Nkwọ! Anayo Dioha ist Anwalt und Schriftsteller vom Stamm der Igbo in Nigeria. Seine Gedichte wurden online und in gedruckter Form bei The New Verse News , Queen's Quarterly , Password: Very Short Poetry und The Literary Cocktail Magazine veröffentlicht. Er ist derzeit dabei, seine Promotion in Rechtswissenschaften zu machen. Antje Bothin liebt es, Gedichte zu schreiben und zu übersetzen. Ihre Poesie wurde in internationalen Anthologien, Zeitschriften und Magazinen veröffentlicht. Sie verfasste einen inspirierenden Roman mit dem Titel‚ Annika and the Treasure of Iceland’. Wenn sie nicht gerade kreativ tätig ist, engagiert sie sich ehrenamtlich in der Natur oder trinkt Tee. The original poem, "Ode to the Four Market Days" by Anayo Dioha is fe...

Anayo Dioha  Ode to the Four Market Days  Like seasons through a western year do dance,  You bring sweet colour to my weekly days:  Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter;  Eke, Orie, Afọ, Nkwọ! Anayo Dioha is a lawyer and writer from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria. His poems lie on the online and print pages of The New Verse News , Queen's Quarterly , Password: Very Short Poetry and The Literary Cocktail Magazine . He's on course to complete a PhD in Law.  "Ode to the Four Market Days" by Anayo Dioha is featured in Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024) and has been translated into: German Igbo Click on the links above to see the translations. 

OMOBOLA OSAMOR welcomes new, hard-hitting ecopoetry collection Helen Moore has been writing eco-poetry long before the genre started attracting popular attention. She co-authored a bilingual poetry collection and three single-author eco-poetry collections. Her latest, The Last Lighthouse in Rising Seas (Palewell Press, 2026) comprises 67 poems, each a page in an unfolding story of a dying earth. Fossil fuels are the dominant cause of global warming, accounting for 89% of carbon dioxide emissions. Somalia and Ethiopia continue to suffer from multi-year severe droughts. Low-lying island nations like the Maldives continue to face increased sea level rises and ocean acidification. In Australia, unprecedented ocean warming has led to devastating mass coral bleaching events. From land subsidence caused by flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia, to the eroding ocean landscape of Alaska, USA, nowhere is spared. These poems are a call to action. Solastalgia . An emotional/existential distress caused ...