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:
- Pity by Sara Teasdale
- The First Part: Sonnet 13 – O sacred blush, impurpling cheeks’ pure skies by William Drummond
- Reply to a Trimming Epistle, received from a Tailor by Robert Burns
- Heartbreak at 2 A.M. poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- The Tree of Scarlet Berries poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Forever Ya by Miraj Patel
- Юрий Кузнецов – Простота милосердия
- Monologue At 3 AM by Sylvia Plath
- On The Death Of Swinburne by Sara Teasdale
- Альфред де Мюссе – Вспомни обо мне
- Robert Burns: Come, Let Me Take Thee To My Breast:
- Madeira From The Sea by Sara Teasdale
- Sonnet Vi
- The Reformers by Rudyard Kipling
- Sonnet LIX by William Shakespeare
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
- Love by Robert Creeley
- Kore by Robert Creeley
- I Know A Man by Robert Creeley
- Goodbye by Robert Creeley
- Four Days In Vermont by Robert Creeley
- Clemente’s Images by Robert Creeley
- Ballad Of The Despairing Husband by Robert Creeley
- America by Robert Creeley
- Age by Robert Creeley
- A Wicker Basket by Robert Creeley
- A Token by Robert Creeley
- A Song by Robert Creeley
- Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning
- Cavalier Tunes: Marching Along by Robert Browning
- Cavalier Tunes: Give a Rouse by Robert Browning
- By The Fire-Side by Robert Browning
- Boot And Saddle by Robert Browning
- Bishop Blougram’s Apology by Robert Browning
- Before by Robert Browning
- Any Wife To Any Husband by Robert Browning
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.