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 – Помощь не придет на такой вой… (Главполитпросвет №14)
- Ольга Берггольц – Новогодний тост
- Robert Burns: Highland Harry Back Again:
- Distributive Trade II – The Wholesaler
- The True Lover poem – A. E. Housman
- Владимир Маяковский – Спросили раз меня: “Вы любите ли НЭП?”
- Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law By Adrienne Rich
- Владимир Высоцкий – Снег скрипел подо мной
- Hector The Collector by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Предостережение
- To Prince Charles by William Alexander
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XIV. Fly, Some Kind Haringer, To Grasmere-Dale by William Wordsworth
- Here Dead We Lie poem – A. E. Housman
- Зинаида Александрова – Давайте, девочки, купаться
- Иван Варавва – На окраине села
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
- Another Way Of Love by Robert Browning
- Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning
- An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Kar by Robert Browning
- Among the Rocks by Robert Browning
- Aix In Provence by Robert Browning
- Abt Vogler by Robert Browning
- A Woman’s Last Word by Robert Browning
- A Toccata Of Galuppi’s by Robert Browning
- A Serenade At The Villa by Robert Browning
- A Pretty Woman by Robert Browning
- A Lovers’ Quarrel by Robert Browning
- A Light Woman by Robert Browning
- A Grammarian’s Funeral by Robert Browning
- The Song of Death by Robert Burns
- The Ploughman’s Life by Robert Burns
- The Ordination by Robert Burns
- The Inventory by Robert Burns
- The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James’s Lodge by Robert Burns
- The Brigs of Ayr by Robert Burns
- Suppressed Stanzas of “The Vision” by Robert Burns
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