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:
- Nobody Told Me Of These Nights (A Poem For Melanie) by Stevens Cadet
- Владимир Высоцкий – Говорят, лезу прямо под нож
- PURE STEEL by Satish Verma
- Игорь Северянин – Симфония
- Hands by Russell Edson
- Constantias Song
- Two Years Later by William Butler Yeats
- Олег Бундур – Заботливая бабушка
- Isabella or The Pot of Basil poem – John Keats poems
- Robert Burns: Jockey’s Taen The Parting Kiss:
- Some Kiss We Want by Rumi
- Harvest Hymn by Sarojini Naidu
- Robert Burns: Lines To Mr. John Kennedy:
- Poppies on Ludlow Castle by Willa Cather
- Pied Beauty by Ted Hughes
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
- In The New Sun by Philip Levine
- In A Vacant House by Philip Levine
- In A Light Time by Philip Levine
- I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine
- I Sing The Body Electric by Philip Levine
- How Much Earth by Philip Levine
- House Of Silence by Philip Levine
- Holy Day by Philip Levine
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Heaven by Philip Levine
- Green Thumb by Philip Levine
- Gin by Philip Levine
- Gangrene by Philip Levine
- For The Country by Philip Levine
- Fist by Philip Levine
- Father by Philip Levine
- Everything by Philip Levine
- Coming Close by Philip Levine
- Clouds Above The Sea by Philip Levine
- Clouds by Philip Levine
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.