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:
- White Currants poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To One who Loved not Poetry by Sappho
- Epigram : To Leonora Singing At Rome 2 (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Delilah by Rudyard Kipling
- Day’s End by Tu Fu
- Sonnet CLIII by William Shakespeare
- The Manor Garden by Sylvia Plath
- Robert Burns: The Charming Month Of May:
- Life Is Motion by Wallace Stevens
- Montefiore poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Ring of Stars by Robert Desnos
- Inscription for the Headstone of Fergusson the Poet by Robert Burns
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (Когда душа изнемогала)
- plato.html
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
- The Garden by Abraham Cowley
- A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley
- O fortunatus nimium, etc., a translation out of Virgil by Abraham Cowley
- The Essay on Agriculture by Abraham Cowley
- Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley
- The Death Of A Fly by Russell Edson
- The Changeling by Russell Edson
- The Breast by Russell Edson
- The Autopsy by Russell Edson
- The Alfresco Moment by Russell Edson
- A Performance At Hog Theater by Russell Edson
- Erasing Amyloo by Russell Edson
- On The Eating Of Mice by Russell Edson
- The Closet by Russell Edson
- Soup Song by Russell Edson
- The Bridge by Russell Edson
- Mr. Brain by Russell Edson
- One Lonely Afternoon by Russell Edson
- Ape And Coffee by Russell Edson
- Accidents by Russell Edson
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.