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:
- A man saw a ball of gold in the sky by Stephen Crane
- Song IV: Draw Near and Behold Me by William Morris
- Владимир Высоцкий – За окном только вьюга, смотри
- Red Slippers poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Нас потеснили… (РОСТА №337)
- One Step Backward Taken by Robert Frost
- The Heir Of Lynne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Омар Хайям – Есть много вер, и все несхожи
- A Rare Guest poem – Alfred Austin
- We Two—How Long We were Fool’d. by Walt Whitman
- Олег Чупров – Мама
- Джон Донн – Христос, Свою невесту, всю в лучах
- Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ballad de soul by Neelam Sinha
- Федор Сологуб – Светлый дом мой всё выше
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
- Владимир Набоков – Как часто я в поезде скором
- Владимир Набоков – К Родине
- Владимир Набоков – Из мира уползли, и ноют на луне
- Владимир Набоков – И видел я, стемнели неба своды
- Владимир Набоков – Глаза
- Владимир Набоков – Есть в одиночестве свобода
- Владимир Набоков – Еще безмолвствую и крепну я в тиши
- Владимир Набоков – Цветет миндаль на перекрестке
- Владимир Набоков – Будь со мной прозрачнее и проще
- Владимир Набоков – Большая медведица
- Владимир Набоков – Безумец
- Владимир Набоков – Барс
- Владимир Маяковский – Журнал “Крысодав”
- Владимир Маяковский – Живой труп (РОСТА №182)
- Владимир Маяковский – Жид
- Владимир Маяковский – Земля наша обильна
- Владимир Маяковский – Застрельщики
- Владимир Маяковский – Заря Коммуны разгорается туго… (РОСТА №856)
- Владимир Маяковский – Заносы не дают железным дорогам жить… (РОСТА №838)
- Владимир Маяковский – Заграничная штучка
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.