Burning Oneself Out

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

We can look into the stove tonight

as into a mirror, yes,

the serrated log, the yellow-blue gaseous core

the crimson-flittered grey ash, yes.

I know inside my eyelids

and underneath my skin

Time takes hold of us like a draft

upward, drawing at the heats

in the belly, in the brain

You told me of setting your hand

into the print of a long-dead Indian

and for a moment, I knew that hand,

that print, that rock,

the sun producing powerful dreams

A word can do this

or, as tonight, the mirror of the fire

of my mind, burning as if it could go on

burning itself, burning down

feeding on everything

till there is nothing in life

that has not fed that fire

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Lorelei by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lesbos by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Leaving Early by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Landowners by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lament by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Kindness by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Jilted by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Insomniac by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• I Want, I Want by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• I Am Vertical by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Heavy Woman by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Hardcastle Crags by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gulliver by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Green Rock, Winthrop Bay by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gold Mouths Cry by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Goatsucker by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gigolo by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works