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:
- Poor Honest Men by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сколько я, сколько я видел на свете их
- His Mistress to Him at his Farewell by Robert Herrick
- Омар Хайям – И сиянье рая, и ада огни
- Зинаида Александрова – Котята
- Hauntings by Rupert Brooke
- Английская поэзия. Айзек Розенберг. Дочери войны. Isaac Rosenberg. Daughters of War
- Robert Burns: O May, Thy Morn:
- An Old Man’s Winter Night by Robert Frost
- Вера Павлова – за руку здороваться с рекой
- Федор Сологуб – В моих мечтах такое постоянство
- Done is a battle by William Dunbar
- Владимир Высоцкий – Одесские куплеты
- Soulmating by Mike Yuan
- Юрий Верховский – Вариации на тему Пушкина
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
- A Paralell Between Bowling And Preferment by William Strode
- A New Year’s Gift by William Strode
- A Necklace by William Strode
- A Lover To His Mistress by William Strode
- A Girdle by William Strode
- Yesterday by W. S. Merwin
- Wish by W. S. Merwin
- Whenever I Go There by W. S. Merwin
- When You Go Away by W. S. Merwin
- Vehicles by W. S. Merwin
- Unknown Bird by W. S. Merwin
- The Speed Of Light by W. S. Merwin
- The Source by W. S. Merwin
- The Ships Are Made Ready In Silence by W. S. Merwin
- The River Of Bees by W. S. Merwin
- The Burnt Child by W. S. Merwin
- Term by W. S. Merwin
- Some Last Questions by W. S. Merwin
- One of the Lives by W. S. Merwin
- On the Subject of Poetry by W. S. Merwin
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