Melanie Barbato

Melanie Barbato is a research associate at the University of Münster, Germany. She works on religion, comparative theology, dialogue, and art, mostly with a focus on the Asian traditions and their global interactions. In her poems, she thinks creatively about the topics of her academic work. Her first poetry collection, Die Erdbeerschale (The Strawberry Bowl) was published in 2022 by Ralf Schuster Verlag.

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► Melanie Barbato's microchap & poems are available below. Download the single-page PDF by clicking the title.

Origami Microchap

Girl with Book and Paper Birds

Click title to download microchap

Melanie Barbato Bio CVR Girl with Book and Paper Birds 2023 May

Cover image detail from Wikipedia:
‘Jeune Fille aux oiseaux en origami’
By Adolphe Piot

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I was a crane
A masu box
A jumping frog
A snail
You smile
I unfold
And then fold anew
Into a wave
A sail

Like a locked letter
A heart cannot be opened
Without being torn
And yet it is meant
It is meant to be read

Don’t mind the creases and holes
Be gentle but bold
A heart is a letter
Have you received one?
Make it unfold

The napkin folded into a rose
The towel into a swan
Before all purpose
A moment of beauty and play
Matter seeks lips, and body and hips
But the forms are content with a smile

You took me up high
Like a weather balloon
The balloon burst
And I came down
Paper planes from space

That was over Germany
But I sailed and sailed
Twelve feet across
For every foot I dropped
Paper planes from space

I came down in the US
And South Africa, too
I had no say in this
And yet I feel free
Paper planes from space

I am eloquent in the language of flowers
I can send a tussie-mussie for any occasion
Cornflower, wild rose or red carnation
Victorian ladies would have known what I mean

I can wrap a gift and convey unspeakable things
Through paper, folds, and knots on the strings
Though I do not speak a word Japanese
Muromachi ladies would have known what I mean

I am useless at banter and modern flirtation
I would feel so lost in this day
But there is a girl who knows not my language
But treasures the things that I say

Between us
The pale line
A folding line
The meaning of a boundary
We can fall into one

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Poets