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:
- The Fairies Break Their Dances by A. E. Housman
- Алексей Хомяков – Просьба
- An Incantation by Thomas Moore
- Arms And The Boy by Wilfred Owen
- The Ringlet poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Craftsman by Rudyard Kipling
- Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- South Africa by Rudyard Kipling
- I saw Old General at Bay. by Walt Whitman
- Pad, Pad by Stevie Smith
- Universe poem – Aminu Ola Rasaq poems | Poems and Poetry
- Long Distance II by Tony Harrison
- The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Doomes-Day: The Sixth Houre by William Alexander
- The Hesitating Veteran poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- Нина Воронель – Сиротское
- Нина Воронель – Санкт-Петербург
- Нина Воронель – С моим житьем, поспешным и тряпичным
- Нина Воронель – Природа сама сочиняет стихи
- Нина Воронель – Предчувствие погрома
- Нина Воронель – Попытка отчаяния
- Нина Воронель – Поэты военных лет
- Нина Воронель – Папоротник II
- Нина Воронель – Осенняя симфония
- Нина Воронель – Одержимые
- Нина Воронель – Неровен час
- Нина Воронель – Неделю, как сотню, лучше не трогать
- Нина Воронель – Не слишком ли ты многого
- Нина Воронель – Мудрая стерва природа
- Нина Воронель – Московский день
- Нина Воронель – Мой дед был слепым
- Нина Воронель – Меня пугает власть моя над миром
- Нина Воронель – Маме
- Нина Воронель – Ломбардная баллада
- Нина Воронель – Игарка
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.