For This

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

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• At the Party by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Old People’s Home by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• O What Is That Sound by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• O Tell Me The Truth About Love by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Nocturne by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• A New Age by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Like A Vocation by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Let A Florid Music Praise by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Law, Like Love by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• At Last the Secret is Out by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Lady Weeping at the Crossroads by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• It’s No Use Raising A Shout by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• In the Time of War, XII by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• In Praise Of Limestone by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Here War Is Simple by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Give me a doctor by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• from The Cave of Making by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• from In Time of War by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Friday’s Child by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
• Friday’s Child by W H Auden by Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works