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:
- On the Death of John M’Leod, Esq. by Robert Burns
- The Bungler poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Ballad Of Father Gilligan by William Butler Yeats
- Love by Shahida Latif
- Cradle Song poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Half-waking by William Allingham
- If The World Was Crazy by Shel Silverstein
- The Trial Of A Man by Sylvia Plath
- Female ghost in the moonlight by Raj Arumugam
- What a Glow Everywhere I see – Aaj Rung Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Epistle To John Maxwell, ESQ., Of Terraughty : On His Birthday.
- Shall I like An Eternal World by Nithin Purple
- Song—O can ye Labour Lea? by Robert Burns
- Николай Некрасов – Не рыдай так безумно над ним
- Владимир Маяковский – Война окончена… (РОСТА №898)
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
- Валерий Брюсов – Город сестер любви видение
- Валерий Брюсов – Голубое, голубое
- Валерий Брюсов – Голос мертвого
- Валерий Брюсов – Голос иных миров
- Валерий Брюсов – К портрету Лермонтова
- Валерий Брюсов – К портрету К.Д. Бальмонта
- Валерий Брюсов – К Пасифае. Сонет
- Валерий Брюсов – К народу
- Валерий Брюсов – К моей стране
- Валерий Брюсов – К финскому народу
- Валерий Брюсов – К.Д. Бальмонту (Вечно вольный, вечно юный)
- Валерий Брюсов – К.Д. Бальмонту (Как прежде, мы вдвоем, в ночном кафе. За входом)
- Валерий Брюсов – К большой медведице
- Валерий Брюсов – К Бальмонту (Погасни, исчезни)
- Валерий Брюсов – К Армении
- Валерий Брюсов – К Адалис
- Валерий Брюсов – К.А. Коровину (Душа твоя, быть может, ослепительней)
- Валерий Брюсов – Из-за облака скользящий
- Валерий Брюсов – Из тихих бездн
- Валерий Брюсов – Из песен Мальдуна
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.