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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• River poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Rising Early poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Retake, Union Square poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Requiem For A Bartender’s Dream poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Repentance poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Prisoners poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Potions poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Once Upon A Wandering Mind poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• On A May Glory-A Welcome Song poem – Nithin Purple poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Now, What is Poetry? poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Night poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• My Father’s Love Letters poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Mules poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Love’s Confession poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Life poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• La Vie Boheme poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Journal Entry poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• [ I think I’m there? ] poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee poem – Zameer Careem poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Heartbreak at 2 A.M. poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File

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