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 

• A Rustic Seat Near The Sea by William Lisle Bowles by William Lisle Bowles
• A Garden-Seat At Home by William Lisle Bowles by William Lisle Bowles
• Where fair Sabrina’s wand’ring currents flow by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To the Right Hon. The Earl of Halifax , with the Fable of the Two Springs by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To the Right Hon. Lady Anne Coventry by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To the Duke of Marlborough, upon His Removal From All His Places by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To the Author of the The Essay on Man by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To Dr. MReading Mathmatics by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To a Young Lady, with the Illiad of Homer Translated by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To a Lady, Who Made Me a Present of a Silver Pen by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To a Gentleman, Who Married His Cast Mistress by William Somervile by William Somerville
• To a Discarded Toast by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Yeoman of Kent by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Wolf and the Dog by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Wise Builder by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Two Springs by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The True Use of the Looking-Glass by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Superannuated Lover by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Sheep and the Bush by William Somervile by William Somerville
• The Lamentation of David Over Saul and Jonathan by William Somervile by William Somerville

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