A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – The Poetry Monster

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

My swirling wants. Your frozen lips.

The grammar turned and attacked me.

Themes, written under duress.

Emptiness of the notations.

They gave me a drug that slowed the healing of wounds.

I want you to see this before I leave:

the experience of repetition as death

the failure of criticism to locate the pain

the poster in the bus that said:

my bleeding is under control

A red plant in a cemetary of plastic wreaths.

A last attempt: the language is a dialect called metaphor.

These images go unglossed: hair, glacier, flashlight.

When I think of a landscape I am thinking of a time.

When I talk of taking a trip I mean forever.

I could say: those mountains have a meaning

but further than that I could not say.

To do something very common, in my own way.

Poetry Monster – Home

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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

On The High Price Of Fish by William Cowper by William Cowper
On the Grasshopper (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of The Bishop Of Ely. Anno Aet. 17. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of Damon. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Benefit Received By His Majesty From Sea-Bathing, In The Year 1789 by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Author Of Letters On Literature by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Astrologers (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receiving Heyne’s Virgil From Mr. Hayley by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receiving Hayley’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receipt Of My Mother’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Pedigree. From Epicharmus by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Pallas Bathing, From A Hymn Of Callimachus by William Cowper by William Cowper
On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Niobe (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Mrs. Montague’s Feather Hangings by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Miltiades by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Late Acquired Wealth (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Invalids (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works

Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.

Tagged 20, 21, Adrienne Rich, American, Americanpoetry, Americanpoets, Archie Randloph Ammons, contemporary, femalepoets, feminism, feminist, lesbian, modern, modern classics, nature, poetry, Rich, USA, woman, womenpoets, XI, XX