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:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Тот, кто раньше с нею был
- Николай Карамзин – К соловью
- I sink as I sail magnificently by Michael Nikoletseas
- Disingenuousness by Mark R Slaughter
- Evening wind by Yosa Buson
- as_with_a_senryu_s_hardening_ridge.html
- Arcades poem – John Milton poems
- The Cremona Violin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Under The Pressure Of Violent Anguish:
- “`Roses crimson, roses white” poem – Alfred Austin
- They Would Love To See Me Dead by Mahmoud Darwish
- Dawlish Fair poem – John Keats poems
- On The Sea poem – John Keats poems
- Evarra And His Gods by Rudyard Kipling
- Children Are Like Water by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
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
- A Sigh In The Night
- A Sermon
- A Prayer
- A Dream Of Venice
- A Supplication
- Written Juice Lemon
- Written In Juice Of Lemon
- Wit
- Welcome
- Vote Excerpt
- Usurpation
- Tree Knowledge
- To The Royal Society
- To The Lord Falkland
- To Sir William Davenant
- Thisbes Song
- The Wish
- The Welcome
- The Vote Excerpt
- The Usurpation
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.