Alisa Velaj was born in the southern port town of Vlora, Albania in 1982. She 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 and was the first runner up in this contest. Velaj’s full length book of poetry A Gospel of Light is published by Aquillrellle in June 2015. Her works have appeared in a number of print and online international magazines, including Blue Lyra Review, (USA), The Cannon’s Mouth (UK), The missing slate (UK), The Midnight Diner (USA), Poetica (USA), Time of Singing(USA 2014 and 2015), Canto (USA), Enhance (USA), Ann Arbor Review (USA) The French Literary Review (UK),SpeedPoets (Australia), , Erbacce (UK), FourW twenty-five Anthology (Australia), Poetry Super Highway (USA), Knot Magazine (USA Winter 2014 and Fall 2015), The Otter (USA), The Journal (UK),Phenomenal Literature (New Delhi, India), Spark (India), The Atherton Review(USA), Indiana Voice Journal (USA, A New Ulster (UK), Section8Magazine (USA), LUMMOX Poetry Anthology 3 and 4 (USA), Miele 1110(Belgium), WritingRawPoetry (USA), Three And A Half Point 9 (UK), Cafe Dissensus Everyday (USA), Anthology by Mago Books. (USA), The Dallas Review (USA), See Spot Run Magazine (USA), Eunoia Review (USA), The Creative Mind (Australia) Angry Manifesto (UK), The Linnet’s Wings (UK), The Poetry Shed (UK), Poetry Scotland (UK), The Write Angle (UK), Reflections (UK), Blink Ink(USA), Of/with Journal (USA), Harbinger Asylum (USA), , Clockwise Cat (USA), Stanzas (UK), Cambridge Creatives (UK), Coldnoon Journal , East Coast Ink Magazine (USA),Free Lit Magazine and Duane’s PoeTree (USA). She also has poems to publish in the forthcoming issues of The Seventh Quarry (UK) and Envoi Magazine (UK). Her poems are translated from Albanian language into english by Laureta Petoshati.
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A DELAYED CHORD
O little tiny butterfly, you tremble
Like a delayed chord on guitar strings.
O little tiny butterfly, night is silent,
An orphanage sheltering blind bats.
It keeps the sounds hovering,
It makes the words fall into silence,
It makes the song suffocate.
You tremble and tremble like a soul in wind.
A blooming tree at the edge of volcanic abysses…
First published online in 2014 in Canto Magazine.
To read more from Alisa pick up a copy of the current issue here