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:
- The Bird of Paradise by William Henry Davies
- Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Natural History of Elephants by Milton Acorn
- Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
- Hymn From A Watermelon Pavilion by Wallace Stevens
- Ars Poetica
- Fairytale by Nicole M Nugent
- A Meeting With Despair by Thomas Hardy
- Translation of a Prayer of Brutus poem – Alexander Pope
- Федор Сологуб – В этот час
- The Merry Guide poem – A. E. Housman
- love growing by Raj Arumugam
- Blood And The Moon by William Butler Yeats
- Editorial Impressions by Siegfried Sassoon
- Валерий Брюсов – Фабричная
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
- An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith
- Absolute Divine by Nithin Purple
- A Sculptor’s Vow by Nikhil Srinivas
- A woman’s desire by Oriada Dajko
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Poetic Abbreviations, Poetry Abbreviations
- I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin
- How Distant by Philip Larkin
- Home Is So Sad by Philip Larkin
- Homage To A Government by Philip Larkin
- High Windows by Philip Larkin
- He Hears That His Beloved Has Become Engaged by Philip Larkin
- Grief by Philip Larkin
- Going by Philip Larkin
- Friday Night At The Royal Station Hotel by Philip Larkin
- For Sidney Bechet by Philip Larkin
- First Sight by Philip Larkin
- Far Out by Philip Larkin
- Faith Healing by Philip Larkin
- Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin
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.