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:
- It Nods and Curtseys and Recovers poem – A. E. Housman
- Sumter In Ruins by William Gilmore Simms
- Владимир Британишский – Лето 1845 года в Соколове
- Алишер Навои – То не заросли тюльпанов
- What time are we living in by T. Wignesan
- Жан де Лафонтен – Язычник и деревянный Идол
- Ольга Берггольц – Здравствуй
- Ольга Седакова – Ни темной старины заветные преданья
- Константин Бальмонт – Морозные узоры
- Walls at Drogheda by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- Ольга Берггольц – Не сына, не младшего брата
- Thoughts Religious Content
- Engagements by Satish Verma
- Омар Хайям – Безгрешными приходим и грешим
- Юнна Мориц – Попрыгать-поиграть
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
- A Dialogue, Between the Resolved Soul, And Created Pleasure poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Song poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- The Parabolic Ballad poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Self-Portrait poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- The AntiWorlds poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Russian-American Romance poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Rubber Souls poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Modern Nature poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- My Friend’s Light poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Her Story poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Fate poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Abuses and Awards poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- A Ballad (Thesis for a Doctor’s Degree) poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Arrow through the bellybutton poem
- In shadows of night
- The Snake
- 永遠
- Forever
- 歐盟
- Storm poem – André Rostant poems
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.