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:
- Burnt in contemplation by Nishant Deherkar
- Николай Некрасов – Дни идут… всё так же воздух душен
- Olney Hymn 22: Prayer For A Blessing In The Young by William Cowper
- Epistle to Dr. Blacklock by Robert Burns
- Occasioned By Some Verses of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Анатолий Жигулин – Начало поэмы
- An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Спиридон Дрожжин – Я для песни задушевной
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Надежде
- The Other Half by Shaunna Harper
- Teddy Bear
- In Praise Of Henna by Sarojini Naidu
- Demon by Vladimir Marku
- To the Rat’s Pencil
- The Lilies by Wendell Berry
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
- Failure by Rupert Brooke
- Dust by Rupert Brooke
- Doubts by Rupert Brooke
- Dining-Room Tea by Rupert Brooke
- Desertion by Rupert Brooke
- Dead Men’s Love by Rupert Brooke
- Day That I Have Loved by Rupert Brooke
- Day And Night by Rupert Brooke
- Dawn by Rupert Brooke
- Clouds by Rupert Brooke
- Choriambics — II by Rupert Brooke
- Choriambics — I by Rupert Brooke
- Charm, The by Rupert Brooke
- Busy Heart, The by Rupert Brooke
- Blue Evening by Rupert Brooke
- Beauty and Beauty by Rupert Brooke
- Ante Aram by Rupert Brooke
- And love has changed to kindliness by Rupert Brooke
- A Memory by Rupert Brooke
- A Letter to a Live Poet by Rupert Brooke
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.