Conversation

We smile at each other

and I lean back against the wicker couch.

How does it feel to be dead? I say.

You touch my knees with your blue fingers.

And when you open your mouth,

a ball of yellow light falls to the floor

and burns a hole through it.

Don’t tell me, I say. I don’t want to hear.

Did you ever, you start,

wear a certain kind of dress

and just by accident,

so inconsequential you barely notice it,

your fingers graze that dress

and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,

you see it too

and you realize how that image

is simply the extension of another image,

that your own life

is a chain of words

that one day will snap.

Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,

and beginning to rise heavenward

in their confirmation dresses,

like white helium balloons,

the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,

and above all that,

that’s where I’m floating,

and that’s what it’s like

only ten times clearer,

ten times more horrible.

Could anyone alive survive it?

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 

• To All and Everything by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Conversation with Comrade Lenin by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Back Home by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Past One O’Clock … by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Our March by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• My Soviet Passport by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Call To Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• Attitude To A Miss by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• At the Top of My voice by Vladimir Mayakovsky by Владимир Маяковский
• What a beautiful world by Vladimir Marku by Poetry In English
• Time by Vladimir Marku by Poetry In English
• The Room The Light and Golden Dust by Vishnu J Mohan by Poetry In English
• The Ghosts of past, the Angels of future by Vyshnav Shabu Nair by Poetry In English
• Signals by Walid Saba by Poetry In English
• September Rain by Vishü Rita Krocha by Poetry In English
• Rain falling by Vladimir Marku by Poetry In English
• Moonlight by Vita Sackville-West by Poetry In English
• Night dyes its hair by Vladimir Marku by Poetry In English
• Monday by Vishü Rita Krocha by Poetry In English
• Love’s Paradox by Vishü Rita Krocha by Poetry In English

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