Because life’s too short to blush,
I keep my blood tucked in.
I won’t be mortified
by what I drive or the flaccid
vivacity of my last dinner party.
I take my cue from statues posing only
in their shoulder pads of snow: all January
you can see them working on their granite tans.
That I woke at an ungainly hour,
stripped of the merchandise that clothed me,
distilled to pure suchness,
means not enough to anyone for me
to confess. I do not suffer
from the excess of taste
that spells embarrassment:
mothers who find their kids unseemly
in their condom earrings,
girls cringing to think
they could be frumpish as their mothers.
Though the late nonerotic Elvis
in his studded gut of jumpsuit
made everybody squeamish, I admit.
Rule one: the King must not elicit pity.
Was the audience afraid of being tainted
–this might rub off on me–
or were they–surrendering–
what a femme word–feeling
solicitous–glimpsing their fragility
in his reversible purples
and unwholesome goldish chains?
At least embarrassment is not an imitation.
It’s intimacy for beginners,
the orgasm no one cares to fake.
I almost admire it. I almost wrote despise.
Copyright ©:
Alice Fulton
A few random poems:
- The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Blank Dreams
- Владимир Высоцкий – Величальная отцу
- Ольга Берггольц – Ни до серебряной и ни до золотой
- Moonlit Night by Tu Fu
- In The Arc Of Your Mallet by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- All Thats Not Love
- Christmas Dance of the Hours by Michael T. Bee
- The Beginning of the End by Rixa White
- On The Victory Obtained By Blake Over the Spaniards, In The Bay Of Scanctacruze, In The Island Of teneriff.1657 poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- On the Circuit by W. H. Auden
- Song—Beware o’ Bonie Ann by Robert Burns
- Mother Earth; Her Beauty And Her Destruction by TMBedell
- Sleepless by Sara Teasdale
- Life of Ms Anonymous by Raj Arumugam
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
- Николай Языков – Песня (Когда умру, смиренно совершите)
- Николай Языков – Песня (Дороже почестей и злата)
- Николай Языков – Песня (Всему человечеству)
- Николай Языков – Песни (Счастлив, кому судьбою дан)
- Николай Языков – Песни (Мы любим шумные пиры)
- Николай Языков – Песни (Душа героев и певцов)
- Николай Языков – Песнь баяна (Люблю смотреть на месяц ясной)
- Николай Языков – Переезд через приморские Альпы
- Николай Языков – П. В. Киреевскому (Ты крепкий, праведный стоятель)
- Николай Языков – П. Н. Шепелеву (Ты мой приятель задушевной)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (Поденщик, тяжело навьюченный дровами)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (Ночь безлунная звездами)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (Мне ль позабыть огонь и живость)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (Любовь, любовь! веселым днем)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (Есть много всяких мук – и много я их знаю)
- Николай Языков – Элегия (День ненастный, темный; тучи)
- Николай Языков – Элегии (Свободен я: уже не трачу)
- Николай Языков – Элегии (Скажи: когда)
- Николай Языков – Елагиной
- Николай Языков – Е. Н. Мандрыкиной (В младой груди моей о вас воспоминанья)
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
