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 

• Hobbinol; or The Rural Games – Canto 2 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Hare-hunting by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 5 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 3 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 1 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• For the Lute by William Somervile by William Somerville
• First let the kennel be the huntsman’s care by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Field Sports by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Epistle from Mr. Somerville, An by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Chase, The – Book 1 by William Somervile by William Somerville
• All-Accomplished Rover by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Advice to the Ladies by William Somervile by William Somerville
• Address to His Elbow-Chair, New Cloath’d, An by William Somervile by William Somerville
• A Padlock for the Mouth by William Somervile by William Somerville
• “Young England–What Is Then Become Of Old” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yew-Trees by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• “Yes! Thou Art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved” by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yes, It Was The Mountain Echo by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yarrow Visited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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