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:
- America, America by Saadi Youssef
- Song I: Though the World Be A-Waning by William Morris
- The Young British Soldier by Rudyard Kipling
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Impresa by Satish Verma
- Olney Hymn 38: Looking Upwards In A Storm by William Cowper
- Locked Away by Margaret Marie Hubbard
- Ars Poetica
- Epitaph on the same by Robert Burns
- “From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,” by Tobias Smollett
- Владимир Маяковский – Посмотрим сами, покажем им
- Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Morning Poem #43 by Wanda Phipps
- Яков Полонский – На Женевском озере
- A Woman Unconscious by Ted Hughes
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
- Джон Мильтон – Новым гонителям свободы
- Джон Мильтон – Написано в дни, когда ожидался штурм Лондона
- Джон Китс – Два-три букета и две-три коробки
- Джон Китс – Дуралейная песня
- Джон Китс – Девчонка из Девона
- Джон Китс – Делим яблоко Евы
- Джон Китс – Что ж, по горам и по долам
- Джон Китс – Четыре разных времени в году
- Джон Китс – Чаттертону
- Джон Донн – Женская верность
- Джон Донн – Я весь боренье, на беду мою
- Джон Донн – Христос, Свою невесту, всю в лучах
- Джон Донн – Ворожба над портретом
- Джон Донн – О черная душа, Недуг напал
- Джон Донн – Ничто
- Джон Донн – Мощи
- Джон Донн – Любовная наука
- Джон Донн – Лекция о тени
- Джон Донн – Когда я с ней, с моим бесценным кладом
- Демьян Бедный – Весенний благостный покой
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.