A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
The clouds and the stars didn’t wage this war
the brooks gave no information
if the mountain spewed stones of fire into the river
it was not taking sides
the raindrop faintly swaying under the leaf
had no political opinions
and if here or there a house
filled with backed-up raw sewage
or poisoned those who lived there
with slow fumes, over years
the houses were not at war
nor did the tinned-up buildings
intend to refuse shelter
to homeless old women and roaming children
they had no policy to keep them roaming
or dying, no, the cities were not the problem
the bridges were non-partisan
the freeways burned, but not with hatred
Even the miles of barbed-wire
stretched around crouching temporary huts
designed to keep the unwanted
at a safe distance, out of sight
even the boards that had to absorb
year upon year, so many human sounds
so many depths of vomit, tears
slow-soaking blood
had not offered themselves for this
The trees didn’t volunteer to be cut into boards
nor the thorns for tearing flesh
Look around at all of it
and ask whose signature
is stamped on the orders, traced
in the corner of the building plans
Ask where the illiterate, big-bellied
women were, the drunks and crazies,
the ones you fear most of all: ask where you were.
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: Fickle Fortune: Fragment
- Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
- Rhyme by Sylvia Plath
- Sonnet 14: Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck by William Shakespeare
- Омар Хайям – Мой друг, о завтрашнем заботиться не след
- Olney Hymn 23: Pleading For And With Youth by William Cowper
- Владимир Маяковский – Шестой
- Consider This And In Our Time by W H Auden
- Rita And The Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish
- Владимир Маяковский – Нынче бар в России нет… (Главполитпросвет №37)
- Вера Павлова – за руку здороваться с рекой
- Юлия Друнина – Дочери
- Владимир Набоков – Будь со мной прозрачнее и проще
- If Only
- A woman’s desire by Oriada Dajko
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
- New Year’s Dawn – Broadway by Sara Teasdale
- In Memoriam F.O.S. by Sara Teasdale
- Madeira From The Sea by Sara Teasdale
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- Love In Autumn by Sara Teasdale
- In a Subway Station by Sara Teasdale
- Less Than The Cloud To The Wind by Sara Teasdale
- In A Restaurant by Sara Teasdale
- Interlude: Songs Out Of Sorrow by Sara Teasdale
- In A Railroad Station by Sara Teasdale
- In The Train by Sara Teasdale
- In A Garden by Sara Teasdale
- In The Metropolitan Museum by Sara Teasdale
- In A Cuban Garden by Sara Teasdale
- In The End by Sara Teasdale
- In the Carpenter’s Shop by Sara Teasdale
- In Spring, Santa Barbara by Sara Teasdale
- In Memoriam F.O.S. by Sara Teasdale
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- In a Subway Station by Sara Teasdale
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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.