A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
If I’ve reached for your lines (I have)
like letters from the dead that stir the nerves
dowsed you for a springhead
to water my thirst
dug into my compost skeletons and petals
you surely meant to catch the light:
-at work in my wormeaten wormwood-raftered
stateless underground
have I a plea?
If I’ve touched your finger
with a ravenous tongue
licked from your palm a rift of salt
if I’ve dreamt or thought you
a pack of blood fresh-drawn
hanging darkred from a hook
higher than my heart
(you who understand transfusion)
where else should I appeal?
A pilot light lies low
while the gas jets sleep
(a cat getting toed from stove
into nocturnal ice)
language uncommon and agile as truth
melts down the most intractable silence
A lighthouse keeper’s ethics:
you tend for all or none
for this you might set your furniture on fire
A this we have blundered over
as if the lamp could be shut off at will
rescue denied for some
and still a lighthouse be
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: The Author’s Earnest Cry And Prayer: To the Right Honourable and Honourable Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons.
- An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- DEATH AND VISION by Satish Verma
- Not Here by Rumi
- Special Problems in Vocabulary by Tony Hoagland
- Владимир Британишский – Памятник
- Let The Weary World Go Round poem – Alfred Austin
- Forbidden Silence by Preeth Nambiar
- Easter Morning poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Два клада
- Ode to Fanny poem – John Keats poems
- Shelley’s Death poem – Alfred Austin
- Upon Appleton House, to My Lord Fairfax poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Михаил Лермонтов – Чаша жизни
- Владимир Корнилов – Собака подлеца
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
- Look not in my eyes, for fear poem – A. E. Housman
- Loitering with a Vacant Eye poem – A. E. Housman
- Loitering with a Vacant Eye poem – A. E. Housman
- It Nods and Curtseys and Recovers poem – A. E. Housman
- Into My Heart an Air that Kills poem – A. E. Housman
- In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad poem – A. E. Housman
- In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad poem – A. E. Housman
- If Truth in Hearts That Perish poem – A. E. Housman
- If By Chance Your Eye Offend You poem – A. E. Housman
- If By Chance Your Eye Offend You poem – A. E. Housman
- I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded poem – A. E. Housman
- I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded poem – A. E. Housman
- Hughley Steeple poem – A. E. Housman
- Hughley Steeple poem – A. E. Housman
- Ho, everyone that thirsteth poem – A. E. Housman
- Ho, everyone that thirsteth poem – A. E. Housman
- Here Dead We Lie poem – A. E. Housman
- From Far, From Eve and Morning poem – A. E. Housman
- From Far, From Eve and Morning poem – A. E. Housman
- Fragment of a Greek Tragedy poem – A. E. Housman
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.