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:
- Despairing Cries. by Walt Whitman
- The First Thrush by Mary Gilmore
- Oh Life I Have Taken You For My Lover
- Poems On Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Two Sisters Of Persephone by Sylvia Plath
- Robert Burns: Ballads on Mr. Heron’s Election, 1795: Ballad Third – John Bushby’s Lamentation.
- Could Man Be Drunk Forever poem – A. E. Housman
- Низами Гянджеви – Из месяца лишь день прошел
- Little Of Me by Rabindranath Tagore
- Slant by Stephen Dunn
- Robert Burns: On Seeing Mrs. Kemble In Yarico:
- The useless counsellor by Ross D Tyler
- Вера Звягинцева – Другу-переводчику
- Sonnet Xii
- Владимир Высоцкий – Одесские куплеты
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
- Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony by Shel Silverstein
- Listen To The Mustn’ts by Shel Silverstein
- Lemmebesomethin’ by Shel Silverstein
- I’ve Been Working So Hard by Shel Silverstein
- In The Hills Of Shiloh by Shel Silverstein
- In Search Of Cinderella by Shel Silverstein
- I’m So Good That I Don’t Have To Brag by Shel Silverstein
- I’m My Own Grandpa by Shel Silverstein
- If The World Was Crazy by Shel Silverstein
- If I Had A Brontosaurus by Shel Silverstein
- I Once Knew A Woman by Shel Silverstein
- I Can’t Touch The Sun by Shel Silverstein
- I Call That True Love by Shel Silverstein
- Hug O’War by Shel Silverstein
- Hippo’s Hope by Shel Silverstein
- Hector The Collector by Shel Silverstein
- Hard To Please by Shel Silverstein
- Handy Man by Shel Silverstein
- Hamlet As Told On The Street by Shel Silverstein
- For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein
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.