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:
- The Queen’s Marie poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Of You by Philo Ikonya
- Владимир Британишский – Били в армии, в школе, в столице, в селе
- Psalm 03 poem – John Milton poems
- Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Британишский – Перед самой войной
- Solitude poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Who Fancied What A Pretty Sight by William Wordsworth
- A Hairline Fracture poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Crawling At Sea by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Bitterness by Philip Levine
- On a Fan of the Author’s Design poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Robert Burns: Phillis The Fair:
- Stars Over The Dordogne by Sylvia Plath
- Never Again by Stevie Smith
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
- do you believe in always by Steve Troyanovich
- cascades of emptiness by Steve Troyanovich
- … and the moon was sleeping by Steve Troyanovich
- ambiguities of absence by Steve Troyanovich
- Who Would Of Knew…..About Your Concept!!! (July 10th) by Stevens Cadet
- The Future Promise Letter by Stevens Cadet
- Sometimes….Life’s A Beach by Stevens Cadet
- Passion Of My Heart by Stevens Cadet
- Nobody Told Me Of These Nights (A Poem For Melanie) by Stevens Cadet
- A Night With Passion! by Stevens Cadet
- Lyfe by Stevens Cadet
- Cupid’s Reign Of Terror (March 2012) by Stevens Cadet
- The Captain by Stevens Cadet
- Better Days by Stevens Cadet
- A Poem For Ashleigh (July) by Stevens Cadet
- A Pen Wrote The Funeral by Stevens Cadet
- A Morning Letter by Stevens Cadet
- The Pleasures Of Friendship by Stevie Smith
- The Jungle Husband by Stevie Smith
- Tenuous And Precarious by Stevie Smith
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.