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:
- Ballade Of The Bookworm poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Robert Burns: Jerusalem Tavern, Dumfries.: Inscription On A Goblet
- Book Eighth: Retrospect–Love Of Nature Leading To Love Of Man by William Wordsworth
- Shot? So Quick, So Clean an Ending? poem – A. E. Housman
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Alchemy by Sara Teasdale
- When and Why by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Buddhist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn
- Images by Mary Etta Metcalf
- I Know From my Bed by Michael Lee Johnson
- Unsung Hands by Satish Verma
- Now Hollow Fires Burn Out to Black poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 44. She Is Far From the Land. Томас Мур.
- A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON by Robert Herrick
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
- Streets Of Teal by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shining Armour by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shallow Valley by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shadow Overhead by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Rusty Folks by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Quest for Thee by Vanessa Perkins
- Precious Pearl by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Power Of Love by Valentine Mbagu
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Mauve Mittens by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Innocent Steps by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Vaishnavi Prakash – Vaishnavi Prakash
- Gimmick In A Geisha by Vaishnavi Prakash
- False Intimacy by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Eternal Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Esteemed Bliss by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Empty Pages by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Daffodil Dreams by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Curse of Righteousness by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Crawling At Sea by Vaishnavi Prakash
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.