Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.
Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.
Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.

A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – Солнечный флаг
- The Pangolin by Marianne Moore
- Impromptu on Dumourier’s Desertion of the French Republican Army by Robert Burns
- The Lilies by Wendell Berry
- Innocent Steps by Vaishnavi Prakash
- I Chide Not At The Seasons poem – Alfred Austin
- The Autopsy by Russell Edson
- Impresa by Satish Verma
- Insomniac by Maya Angelou
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- To Robert Louis Stevenson poem – Alfred Austin
- Listening poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Song of Pitcairn’s Island by William Cullen Bryant
- Ellen Irwin Or The Braes Of Kirtle by William Wordsworth
- Ольга Седакова – Неужели, Мария, только рамы скрипят
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
- Hope And Riders
- Do I
- Communal War
- Blank Dreams
- Before
- Again
- A Voice
- A Toast To Nations
- What Of The Night
- Vows
- To Morrow
- The Winged Mariners
- The Watchman
- The Virgin Martyr
- The Vain Question
- The Soldiers Grave
- The Silence In The Church
- The Season
- The Resting Place
- The Old Manor House
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