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:
- Seven Deadly Signs of Poetry Scams
- Not Heat Flames up and Consumes. by Walt Whitman
- Power Of Thought
- Шекспир – Доверьем мнимым держится любовь – Сонет 138
- Гавриил Державин – Песенка
- FLORECER by Manolo Arriola
- The Heritage by Rudyard Kipling
- The Grizzly Bear poem – A. E. Housman
- Robert Burns: Lines Sent To Sir John Whiteford, Bart: With The Lament On The Death Of the Earl Of Glencairn
- Юлия Друнина – Девчонка – что надо!
- Sonnet 4: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend by William Shakespeare
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Magi by Sylvia Plath
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Charm, The by Rupert Brooke
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
- Crowdie ever mair (Song) by Robert Burns
- Inscription to Chloris by Robert Burns
- Yonder pomp of costly fashion (Song) by Robert Burns
- Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn (Song) by Robert Burns
- My Spouse Nancy by Robert Burns
- Forlorn, my love, no comfort here (Song) by Robert Burns
- Behold the hour by Robert Burns
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- On Chloris being ill (Song) by Robert Burns
- How cruel are the parents by Robert Burns
- Had I a cave by Robert Burns
- Craigieburn Wood by Robert Burns
- Poem on Pastoral Poetry by Robert Burns
- Lines of John M’Murdo by Robert Burns
- Inscription for an Alter of Independence by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on a Lap-dog by Robert Burns
- Epigram on Miss Davies by Robert Burns
- Out over the Forth (Song) by Robert Burns
- O aye my wife she dang me (Song) by Robert Burns
- Hey, the Dusty Miller (Song) by Robert Burns
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.