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:
- When You Come by Maya Angelou
- Don’t Need Anything by Pat Mullan
- The house where I was born (07) by Yves Bonnefoy
- The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden
- Жан де Лафонтен – Смерть и Несчастный
- An Epitaph Upon A Virgin by Robert Herrick
- Torn Shades by Thomas Lux
- Алексей Жемчужников – Ты прав
- Юнна Мориц – На смерть Джульетты
- Ballade Of Queen Anne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth
- Вера Павлова – Попытка не пытка
- Miss Brown by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- To A Lady On The Death Of Her Husband by Phillis Wheatley
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Indifference. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
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
- Ballade Of Roulette poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Queen Anne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Old Plays poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Worldly Wealth poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of True Wisdom poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Voyage To Cythera poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Tweed poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Summer Term poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Southern Cross poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Royal Game Of Golf poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Muse poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Midnight Forest poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Dream poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Dead Cities poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of The Bookworm poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Sleep poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Roulette poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Queen Anne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of Old Plays poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
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