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 

• Tom The Lunatic by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Tom O’Roughley by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To Dorothy Wellesley by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To Be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To A Young Girl by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To A Young Beauty by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators Of His And Mine by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake by William Blake
• Poems by William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience and the Book of Thel by William Blake
• Written In March by William Wordsworth by Anglo File
• To the City of London by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• To a Lady by William Dunbar by William Dunbar
• The Sirens’ Song by William Browne by Anglo File
• The Rose by William Browne by Anglo File
• The Quarry by William Vaughn Moody by Anglo File
• The Daguerreotype by William Vaughn Moody by Anglo File
• The Blues by William Matthews by Anglo File
• Song by William Browne by Anglo File

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