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:
- Justification by William Strode
- On His Seventy-fifth Birthday by Walter Savage Landor
- Landscapes poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that muse by William Shakespeare
- The Craftsman by Rudyard Kipling
- Paradise Lost: Book 06 poem – John Milton poems
- Алексей Плещеев – Цветок
- The Motto
- As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: O Steer Her Up An’ Haud Her Gaun:
- Валерий Брюсов – Из наблюдений
- Mirage by Neelam Sinha
- Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits by William Shakespeare
- The Hermit At Outermost House by Sylvia Plath
- Юлия Друнина – Убивали молодость мою
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 Гумилев – Ночь
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- Николай Гумилев – Неоромантическая сказка
- Николай Гумилев – Неизгладимы, нет, в моей судьбе
- Николай Гумилев – На Дуксе ли, на Бенце ль я
- Николай Гумилев – На далекой звезде Венере
- Николай Гумилев – На берегу моря
- Николай Гумилев – Мужик
- Николай Гумилев – Моя мечта летит к далекому Парижу
- Николай Гумилев – Мореплаватель Павзаний
- Николай Гумилев – Молитва мастеров
- Николай Гумилев – Маскарад
- Николай Гумилев – Маргарита
- Николай Гумилев – Маэстро
- Николай Гумилев – Мадагаскар
- Николай Гумилев – Людям будущего
- Николай Гумилев – Любовь весной
- Николай Гумилев – Луна на море
- Николай Гумилев – Лиловый цветок
- Николай Гумилев – Левин, Левин, ты суров
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.