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

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Poems in English 

• The Milk-Maid O’ The Farm by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Mead A-Mow’d by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Meäd In June by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The May-Tree by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Maid Vor My Bride by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Maid O’ Newton by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Lovely Maïd Ov Elwell Meäd by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Love Child by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Little Worold by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Linden On The Lawn by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Lilac by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Lew O’ The Rick by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Leäne by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Leädy’s Tower by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Lark by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Ivy by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Hwomestead A-Vell Into Hand by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Humstrum by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Homestead by William Barnes by William Barnes
• The Hollow Woak by William Barnes by William Barnes

More external links (open in a new tab):

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Doska or the Board – write anything

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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.

 

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