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:
- As At Thy Portals Also Death. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Willie Chalmers: Mr. Chalmers, a gentleman in Ayrshire, a particular friend of mine, asked me to write a poetic epistle to a young lady, his Dulcinea. I had seen her, but was scarcely acquainted with her, and wrote as follows:-
- The Rose by Sara Teasdale
- Night Of Battle by Yvor Winters
- Did You Never Know? by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Набоков – Расстрел
- Treat Well Your Wife by William Barnes
- Юрий Верховский – Как раненый олень кидается в поток
- Robert Burns: Epigram At Roslin Inn:
- Шекспир – Прекрасный облик в зеркале ты видишь – Сонет 3
- To a Very Wise Man by Siegfried Sassoon
- Its gonna be sunday by Shailendra Singh
- Forfeiture
- Robert Burns: The Lament: Occasioned by the unfortunate issue of a Friend’s Amour.
- Владимир Маяковский – Последняя петербургская сказка
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
- Юлия Друнина – Дочери
- Юлия Друнина – Девчонка – что надо!
- Юлия Друнина – Да, сердце часто ошибалось
- Юлия Друнина – Чтоб человек от стужи не застыл
- Юлия Друнина – Целовались
- Юлия Друнина – Царевна
- Юлия Друнина – Большой ребёнок ты
- Юлия Друнина – Бинты
- Юлия Друнина – Бежала от морозов, вот беда
- Юлия Друнина – Бережем тех, кого любим
- Юлия Друнина – Баллада о десанте
- Юлия Друнина – Альпинисту
- Юлия Друнина – А всё равно
- Юлия Друнина – Зной
- Юлия Друнина – Зима, зима нагрянет скоро
- Юлия Друнина – Жизнь моя не катилась
- Юлия Друнина – Здесь продают билеты на Парнас
- Юлия Друнина – Запас прочности
- Юлия Друнина – Забытая тетрадь, Истертые листы
- Юлия Друнина – Ялта Чехова
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
