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:
- Woman Work by Maya Angelou
- The Frog’s Choice by William Somervile
- By The Fire
- Омар Хайям – Моя любовь к тебе достигла совершенства
- Низами Гянджеви – Месяц неполный прошел
- Ольга Высотская – Гости
- Call It Music by Philip Levine
- Northern Farmer: New Style poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- For Hans Carossa by Rainer Maria Rilke
- An ode to you by Tanisha Avarsekar
- World’s Sweetest Sister Of Mine by Miraj Patel
- Cascando by Samuel Beckett
- Looks A-Know’d Avore by William Barnes
- Epitaph On An Infant. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- An Honest Poet’s Life Is Full Of Care by Malcolm Massiah
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
- Аля Кудряшева – Про ангелов
- Аля Кудряшева – Поперек
- Аля Кудряшева – Помнишь, как это
- Аля Кудряшева – Пой мне еще, что я могу изменить
- Аля Кудряшева – По дому бегает Марфа
- Аля Кудряшева – Осень в городе
- Аля Кудряшева – Октябрь был дождем, непонятным месяцем
- Аля Кудряшева – Ну что я могу ответить
- Аля Кудряшева – Ночное
- Аля Кудряшева – Невозможно держать в памяти все человечество
- Аля Кудряшева – Не бойся, милый
- Аля Кудряшева – Молитва
- Аля Кудряшева – Мне снился
- Аля Кудряшева – Меня мотает тянет ведет налево
- Аля Кудряшева – М. и П.
- Аля Кудряшева – Когда наступает вечер
- Аля Кудряшева – Какое там говорить. Я дышу с трудом
- Аля Кудряшева – И кстати, еще бывает уездный гор
- Аля Кудряшева – И если Богу нужны гимнасты
- Аля Кудряшева – Это просто слишком длинная осень
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.