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:
- My Picture-Gallery. by Walt Whitman
- athens_stone_of_sapphire_of_ground_the_ring.html
- On Seeing the Ladies Crux-Easton Walk in the Woods by the Grotto. poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Fall by Russell Edson
- Could Man Be Drunk Forever poem – A. E. Housman
- Олег Григорьев – Я дверь в коридор отворил
- Intruder
- Flowers From Sion: Sonnet 25 – More oft than once death whispered by William Drummond
- Two Songs By Sitara Of Kashmir
- On seeing Mrs. Kemble in Yarico by Robert Burns
- Robert Burns: On Hearing It Asserted Falsehood: is expressed in the Rev. Dr. Babington’s very looks.
- Наум Коржавин – Не верь, что ты поэта шире
- The Merry Guide poem – A. E. Housman
- Prison Souvenirs, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan.
- Here I would have loved you by Luz del Alba Nicola
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
- Reproof: A Satire. by Tobias Smollett
- Tobias Smollett – Tobias Smollett
- Love Elegy (in imitation of Tibullus) by Tobias Smollett
- “Let the nymph still avoid and be deaf to the swain” by Tobias Smollett
- To Independence by Tobias Smollett
- “From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,” by Tobias Smollett
- “Come listen, ye students of every degree” by Tobias Smollett
- Blue-Eyed Ann by Tobias Smollett
- Advice: A Satire. by Tobias Smollett
- You Will Forget! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Words Of Love Forevermore by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- What Is Woman But A Song! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Squirrel by Todd H. C. Fischer
- The Pulling Away by Timothy Cole
- The moon at noon by Tom Mukasa
- The Leather Suitcase by Tom Berman
- The Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Heart That Is Pining by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Clime Of My Birth by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Bird Has Vanished by Timothy Thomas Fortune
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.