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.

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Poems in English

An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Precise Woman by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Pity, We Were Such A Good Invention by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Jewish Cemetery In Germany by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Dog After Love by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
Straw sandal half sunk by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Sparrow singing by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Ploughing the land by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Old well by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Not quite dark yet by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
My arm for a pillow by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Listening to the moon by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Lighting one candle by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Yosa Buson – Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Hokku Poems in Four Seasons by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
His Holiness the Abbot by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
He’s on the porch by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Harvest moon by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Evening wind by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Elegy to the Old Man Hokuju by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村