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:
- Witch Burning by Sylvia Plath
- Ancient Sins by Satish Verma
- A Sea-Shore Grave. To M. J. L. by Sidney Lanier
- Wake Not for the World-Heard Thunder poem – A. E. Housman
- Hey, the Dusty Miller (Song) by Robert Burns
- Владимир Британишский – Паллас
- Николай Языков – Тригорское
- Николай Гумилев – Она говорила
- A Paralell Between Bowling And Preferment by William Strode
- one_almost_might.html
- For All We Have And Are by Rudyard Kipling
- I Belong There by Mahmoud Darwish
- To the Victor by William Ellery Leonard
- Blue-Eyed Ann by Tobias Smollett
- Evening balcony by Vladimir Marku
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
- France, the 18th year of These States. by Walt Whitman
- For Him I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- Fast Anchor’d, Eternal, O Love. by Walt Whitman
- Facing West from California’s Shores. by Walt Whitman
- Faces. by Walt Whitman
- Excelsior. by Walt Whitman
- Europe, the 72d and 73d years of These States. by Walt Whitman
- Ethiopia Saluting the Colors. by Walt Whitman
- Elemental Drifts. by Walt Whitman
- Eidólons. by Walt Whitman
- Earth! my Likeness! by Walt Whitman
- Drum-Taps. by Walt Whitman
- Dresser, The. by Walt Whitman
- Dirge for Two Veterans. by Walt Whitman
- Despairing Cries. by Walt Whitman
- Delicate Cluster. by Walt Whitman
- Debris. by Walt Whitman
- Darest Thou Now, O Soul. by Walt Whitman
- Dalliance of the Eagles, The. by Walt Whitman
- Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. 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.