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:
- A Wasted Illness by Thomas Hardy
- Константин Батюшков – Мои пенаты
- For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell
- The Chambermaid’s First Song by William Butler Yeats
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- I Salute You , O Women! by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen
- Kiss by Ruth Padel
- In Imitation of E. of Dorset : Artemisia poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Least In A List
- La Belle Dame Sans Merci poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Тихонов – Даль полевая, как при Калите
- Владимир Маяковский – Война окончена… (РОСТА №898)
- Николай Заболоцкий – Голубиная книга
- Владимир Высоцкий – В тюрьме Таганской нас стало мало
- Lover’s Gifts XLIV: Where Is Heaven by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
- Haunted by Siegfried Sassoon
- Golgotha by Siegfried Sassoon
- Goblin Revel by Siegfried Sassoon
- Glory Of Women by Siegfried Sassoon
- France by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fight to a Finish by Siegfried Sassoon
- Fancy Dress by Siegfried Sassoon
- Falling Asleep by Siegfried Sassoon
- Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
- Enemies by Siegfried Sassoon
- Elegy by Siegfried Sassoon
- Editorial Impressions by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dryads by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dream-Forest by Siegfried Sassoon
- Does It Matter? by Siegfried Sassoon
- Died of Wounds by Siegfried Sassoon
- Devotion to Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
- Dead Musicians by Siegfried Sassoon
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.