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:
- Юлия Друнина – Забытая тетрадь, Истертые листы
- Валерий Брюсов – Еврейским девушкам
- “The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy
- The Island by Milton Acorn
- Robert Burns: The Young Highland Rover:
- Peace
- Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Enigma of A Phoenix by Neelam Dadhwal
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Лесная дева
- To a person, they say, frigid, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: A celle que l’on fit froide by T. Wignesan
- Summer We Called Home by Vinita Agrawal
- Traveling Through The Dark by William Stafford
- Владимир Степанов – Жучка и тучка
- Day And Night by Rupert Brooke
- Михаил Лермонтов – Что толку жить!.. Без приключений
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
- Николай Карамзин – Послание к женщинам
- Николай Карамзин – Послание к Александру Алексеевичу Плещееву
- Николай Карамзин – Покой и слава
- Николай Карамзин – Меланхолия
- Николай Карамзин – Любовь и дружба
- Николай Карамзин – Луизе в день ее рождения 13 генваря, при вручении ей подарка
- Николай Карамзин – Куплеты из одной сельской комедии, игранной благородными любителями театра
- Николай Карамзин – Клятва и преступление
- Николай Карамзин – К версальским садам
- Николай Карамзин – К соловью
- Николай Карамзин – К самому себе
- Николай Карамзин – К портрету Ломоносова
- Николай Карамзин – К неверной
- Николай Карамзин – К милости
- Николай Карамзин – К Лиле
- Николай Карамзин – К Эмилии
- Николай Карамзин – К Дмитриеву (Многие барды, лиру настроив)
- Николай Карамзин – К бедному поэту
- Николай Карамзин – К Алине на смерть ее супруга
- Николай Карамзин – Из письма к И. И. Дмитриеву (Но что же скажем мы о времени прошедшем)
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.