For This

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

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Poems in English 

• The Jungle Flower by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Hut by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Hospital On The Shore by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Garden Of Kama Kama The Indian Eros by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Garden By The Bridge by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The First Wife by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The First Lover by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Dying Prince by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Convert by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Cactus by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Cactus Thicket by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Bride by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Aloe by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Syed Amir by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Surface Rights by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Surf Song by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Sunstroke by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Story Of Udaipore Told By Lalla Ji The Priest by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Story Of Lilavanti by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Story By Lalla Ji The Priest by Adela Florence Nicolson

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