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:
- Niagara by Vachel Lindsay
- When to the sessions of sweet silent thought (Sonnet 30) by William Shakespeare
- Степан Щипачев – Потомкам
- On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- The Dug-Out by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Weepen Leady by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Долг Украине
- The Slantèn Light O’ Fall by William Barnes
- On The Nature Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Concrete Backyard by Ryssel Guzman
- Eudaemon
- Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks At The Dancers by William Butler Yeats
- Низами Гянджеви – Я долго шел по лугу лет
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мне скулы от досады сводит
- Vacation by Rita Dove
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
- Any Soul That Drank the Nectar by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Any Lifetime by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- All through eternity by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- A Moment Of Happiness by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- The Storm by Rainbow Reed
- The Mystic Isle by Rainbow Reed
- The Chipmunk by R. L. Karlowsky
- The Sandbox by Rachel McKibbens
- Since you asked by Radames Antonio Cruz
- Primrose Rose by Rainbow Reed
- Prayers by Rainbow Reed
- Snow & Ice by Quincy Troupe
- Untitled by Quincy Troupe
- Poem Reaching For Something by Quincy Troupe
- I Hardly Remember by Rafael Guillen
- Not Fear by Rafael Guillen
- Online Lover by Rainbow Reed
- One Day You Will Miss Me.. by Rahul S
- O my Lord by Rabi’a
- Not Fear by Rafael Guillen
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.