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:
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- The Pillar’d Geäte by William Barnes
- 9 Types of Lovers – The Twisted Version
- Death In Leamington poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn (Song) by Robert Burns
- Илья Эренбург – Ода
- Song—O let me in this ae night by Robert Burns
- Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- O Tan-faced Prairie Boy. by Walt Whitman
- The Pleasures of Memory
- Only Thee by Rabindranath Tagore
- Spanish Banks
- Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens
- The Hesitating Veteran poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Языков – Воспоминание
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
- This Moment, Yearning and Thoughtful. by Walt Whitman
- This Dust was Once the Man. by Walt Whitman
- This Day, O Soul. by Walt Whitman
- This Compost. by Walt Whitman
- Think of the Soul. by Walt Whitman
- Thick-Sprinkled Bunting. by Walt Whitman
- These, I, Singing in Spring. by Walt Whitman
- There was a Child went Forth. by Walt Whitman
- The Wound-Dresser by Walt Whitman
- That Shadow, my Likeness. by Walt Whitman
- That Music Always Round Me. by Walt Whitman
- Tests. by Walt Whitman
- Tears. by Walt Whitman
- Still, though the One I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- States! by Walt Whitman
- Starting from Paumanok. by Walt Whitman
- Spontaneous Me. by Walt Whitman
- Spirit whose Work is Done. by Walt Whitman
- Spirit That Form’d This Scene. by Walt Whitman
- Sparkles from The Wheel. by Walt Whitman
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.