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:
- Cromwell’s Return poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Нина Воронель – Я не хочу опять вернуться в детство
- Аля Кудряшева – Тяжело деревьям зимой
- Илья Эренбург – Ода
- Love’s Gleaning Tide by William Morris
- The Carpenter’s Son by Sara Teasdale
- Sonnet 27: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Маяковский – Детский театр из собственной квартирки
- Encounter In The Chestnut Avenue by Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Morning Of The Day Appointed For A General Thanksgiving. January 18, 1816 by William Wordsworth
- Jock O The Side poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Teaken In Apples by William Barnes
- Come by Sara Teasdale
- The Stage Coach by William Barnes
- Auntie’s Skirts by Robert Louis Stevenson
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 Гербель – В дорогу
- Николай Гербель – Ура, объявлена война
- Николай Гербель – Салютовка
- Николай Гербель – Простор
- Николай Гербель – Песнь лейб-гвардии уланского полка
- Николай Гербель – На смерть воробья
- Николай Гербель – Меня преследует какой-то демон злой
- Николай Гербель – Изюмцам
- Николай Гербель – Бокал
- Наум Коржавин – Поэзия не страсть, а власть
- Наум Коржавин – Подмосковная платформа в апреле
- Наум Коржавин – Песня лейб-казачьей сотни
- Наум Коржавин – Перевал
- Наум Коржавин – Памяти Герцена или Баллада об историческом недосыпе
- Наум Коржавин – От судьбы никуда не уйти
- Наум Коржавин – От дурачеств, от ума ли
- Наум Коржавин – Осень в Караганде
- Наум Коржавин – Он собирался многое свершить
- Наум Коржавин – О Господи! Как я хочу умереть
- Наум Коржавин – Никакой истерики
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.