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:
- Silence by Thomas Hood
- A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling
- Notes For The Legend Of Salad Woman by Michael Ondaatje
- To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu poem – Alexander Pope
- Константин Ваншенкин – Ехал я в штабном автомобиле
- Youth and Love poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Наум Коржавин – Неужели птицы пели
- Robert Burns: O Aye My Wife She Dang Me:
- The Call To Arms In Our Street by Winifred Mary Letts
- Since There Is No Escape by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Маяковский – Вот молочный налог… (Главполитпросвет №217)
- Granadilla poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Василий Жуковский – Из альбома, подаренного Ростопчиной (Пушкин)
- Mungojerrie And Rumpelteazer by T. S. Eliot
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
- The Eclipsed Past by Tholana Ashok Chakravarthy
- The Call of the Crows by Tanmoy
- The Blind Man by Théophile Gautier
- The Beautiful Heartbreak by Talha Jafri
- Snow Flakes by Tala Bar
- Selecting A Reader by Ted Kooser
- Seasons by Tala Bar
- Ritual by Tala Bar
- Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson
- On The Move ‘Man, You Gotta Go. by Thom Gunn
- My Sad Captains by Thom Gunn
- Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali
- Lucid Dreams by Talha Jafri
- Love In Reverse by Talha Jafri
- Love Equals Insanity by Talha Jafri
- Light by Tala Bar
- Last Poem by Ted Berrigan
- In January by Ted Kooser
- I Want It Now by Roald Dahl
- Exodus by Taha Muhammad Ali
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