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:
- Yes, It Was The Mountain Echo by William Wordsworth
- Song—Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns
- The Shepherd O’ The Farm by William Barnes
- Dead On Arrival by Preethi Saravanakumar
- Юрий Левитанский – Мое поколение
- Song—The Tear-drop—“Wae is my heart” by Robert Burns
- Sonnet CX by William Shakespeare
- Юлия Друнина – В семнадцать
- Ольга Берггольц – Ты в пустыню меня послала
- October, 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Олег Бундур – Сторож
- The Lion by Vachel Lindsay
- life begins tomorrow by Raj Arumugam
- Виталий Тунников – Заюшкина избушка
- An Abandoned Factory, Detroit by Philip Levine
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
- Sonnet LI by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet L by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet IX by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet IV: Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet IV by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet III: Look In Thy Glass, and Tell the Face Thou Viewest by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet III by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet II: When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet II by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet I: From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet I by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXVIII by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXVII by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXVI by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXV by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXIX by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXIV by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXIII by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXII by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet CXXXI by William Shakespeare
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.