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:
- Юлия Друнина – Ржавчина
- Evenèn, An’ Maidens Out At Door by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Первый вывоз
- Give Me Back My Rags #1 by Vasko Popa
- Владимир Высоцкий – И в Дубне, и на Таганке что-то ставят, что-то строят
- On Fame poem – John Keats poems
- On Mr. Gay poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Ballad of the Old Cypress by Tu Fu
- The Emigrant by Ndue Ukaj
- Кондратий Рылеев – Песня (Кто сколько ни хлопочет)
- Clever Stalk by Richard Schiffman
- Blanche Sweet by Vachel Lindsay
- Николай Тихонов – Как след от весла
- Новелла Матвеева – Дома без крыш
- Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown
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
- Leaving Albania by Morelle Smith
- Komori by T. Wignesan
- In torque by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- In the Blaze.. by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- I Salute You , O Women! by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen
- I like to let the word fly about by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- I a soul by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Hunger and Thirst by Muhammad Dawood Jan
- Here by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Haiku: The Bluebird and the Sky by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: March by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: January by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: His Little Drum by Monty Gilmer
- Green Notes by Mrunmayi Mandan
- From the heart of your heart by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Forbidden Fruit by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Days and Nights by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Dark Room( qua vadis) by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Crush by Muhereza Louis
- Cinquain on Love: Touch by Monty Gilmer
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.