May I never be afraid
especially of myself
but
Muhammed Ali are you telling
the truth?
Well you’re being true aren’t you and
you talk so wonderfully in your body
that protects you with physique of voice
raps within dance
May I never be afraid
rocked and quaked
the mantilla is lace
whose black is oak
But if I’m dark I’m strong
as my own darkness
my strength the universe
whose blackness is air
only starry
lace
But if I’m alive I’m strong
as life
Strong as the violets
in Marlon Brando’s fist
his dissemblance flourished into truth
She
took them
I’d take me too
I do
and my Ali I see you
a hard bright speck of me
the savage formalist
authentic deed of gossip
a kind body.
Copyright ©:
Alice Notley

A few random poems:
- Desire by Samuel Coleridge
- “Although no stupid scoffer, I” poem – Alfred Austin
- A soldier’s Pledge by Sylvan Lightbourne
- In The Bus That Is Frantically Rushing From Cairo To Port Said
- Insensibility by Wilfred Owen
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чувство
- A VOW TO VENUS by Robert Herrick
- With All Thy Gifts. by Walt Whitman
- Fragments by William Butler Yeats
- Happy Teacher’s Day by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Woods by Wendell Berry
- Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- Christmas Holidays by Thomas Hood
- Homing by Satish Verma
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Sonnet I
- Sonnet 12
- Sonnet 11
- Sonnet 10
- Sonnet 08
- Sonnet 07
- Sonnet 06
- Sonnet 05
- Sonnet 04
- Sonnet 03
- Sonnet 02
- Sonnet 01
- Resurgam
- Rendezvous
- On The Cliffs Newport
- On A Theme In The Greek Anthology
- Ode In Memory Of The American Volunteers Fallen For France
- Maktoob
- Lyonesse
- Liebestod
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works