For The Record

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.

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 

• Up The Line by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Uncle Sammy by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The New Church Organ by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Littlle Black-Eyed Rebel by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The House Where We Were Wed by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Fading Flower by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Editor’s Guests by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• The Country Doctor by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Thanksgiving Day by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Over The Hill From The Poor-House by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Our Army Of The Dead by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• One And Two by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Johnny Rich by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Autumn Days by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Apple-Blossoms by Will McKendree Carleton by William Carleton
• Two Songs Of Advent by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• Dark spring by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• Where My Sight Goes by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters
• To Emily Dickinson by Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters

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