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:
- Sonnet 74: But be contented when that fell arrest by William Shakespeare
- Business Girls poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня микрофона
- Grandfather’s Love by Sara Teasdale
- The Garden poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Нападали белогвардейцы на Донецкий бассейн… (РОСТА №611)
- Indian Wedding Customs – Eastern and Western Indian Wedding Traditions
- Sonnet: Before He Went poem – John Keats poems
- The Copper Beech by Marie Howe
- Николай Языков – Романс (Что делал с Евою Адам)
- Danse Macabre by Sylvia Plath
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
- Fragment: Modern Love poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Некрасов – Демону
- Аля Кудряшева – Трилогия перед годом (Цепочка ассоциаций)
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
- The Disquieting Muses by Sylvia Plath
- The Dispossessed by Sylvia Plath
- The Detective by Sylvia Plath
- The Death Of Myth-Making by Sylvia Plath
- The Dead by Sylvia Plath
- The Couriers by Sylvia Plath
- The Courage Of Shutting-Up by Sylvia Plath
- The Companionable Ills by Sylvia Plath
- The Colossus by Sylvia Plath
- The Burnt-Out Spa by Sylvia Plath
- The Bull Of Bendylaw by Sylvia Plath
- The Beggars by Sylvia Plath
- The Beekeeper’s Daughter by Sylvia Plath
- The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath
- The Beast by Sylvia Plath
- The Babysitters by Sylvia Plath
- The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath
- The Applicant by Sylvia Plath
- Temper Of Time by Sylvia Plath
- Tale Of A Tub by Sylvia Plath
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.