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:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Когда вдали от суеты всемирной
- Нина Воронель – Аэродром
- Sonnet Xiv
- Robert Burns: O Let Me In Thes Ae Night:
- When You Come by Maya Angelou
- A March Minstrel poem – Alfred Austin
- Hey birds by Raj Arumugam
- Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be by Vachel Lindsay
- Trench Duty by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Harbour by Winifred Mary Letts
- The Riddle of the World poem – Alexander Pope
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Когда бы
- Dedication To The Edition Of 1876 To H.J.A. poem – Alfred Austin
- The Tenants Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Brookland Road by Rudyard Kipling
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
- Вероника Тушнова – Кто-то в проруби тонет
- Вероника Тушнова – Костер
- Вероника Тушнова – Звезда
- Вероника Тушнова – Знаешь ли ты, что такое горе
- Вероника Тушнова – Зеркало
- Вероника Тушнова – Яблоки
- Вероника Тушнова – Я стою у открытой двери
- Вероника Тушнова – Я поняла, ты не хотел мне зла
- Вероника Тушнова – Я поднимаюсь по колючим склонам
- Вероника Тушнова – Я одна тебя любить умею
- Вероника Тушнова – В чем отказала я тебе
- Вероника Тушнова – Утро (Вся ночь без сна)
- Вероника Тушнова – У всех бывают слабости минуты
- Вероника Тушнова – У каждого есть в жизни хоть одно,
- Вероника Тушнова – Ты все еще тревожишься — что будет
- Вероника Тушнова – Ты не любишь считать облака
- Вероника Тушнова – Ты любил, и я тебя любила
- Вероника Тушнова – Твои глаза
- Вероника Тушнова – Тропа, петляя и пыля
- Вероника Тушнова – Тень
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.