Nothing will hurt you that much despite how you feel
the stress on your back shapes your insight
this splendid November rain Toussaint. I find
you by your marks, he says
an imprint
But when I summon you, I talk to—I say—
my memory of your face. It’s kind of crazy
to others. They’re not very interesting he says.
When I first came to this country, and now
I know the language I say, but I had in a dream
spoken it many years previously. That is,
not the language of the dead the language
of France. I took one year of French in 1964
and then nothing but once, in 1977 I spoke French
in a dream all night: I was in the future I
moved here in 1992. Country of the more
logical than I? though the people of my quartier
know and like me, even as I a foreigner remain strange
You do everything alone a woman said to me.
There are ways to care without interfering
but the French speak of anguish frequently
they are conscious of emotional extremity
a terrible gift. It’s all a gift, he says . . .
some haven’t been opened. I’m not sure
he said that it’s nearly my sixty-seventh birthday
today though it’s the day of the dead hello
we love you they say.
Copyright ©:
Alice Notley

A few random poems:
- I stood musing in a black world by Stephen Crane
- The Man Born to Farming by Wendell Berry
- To His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor by Phillis Wheatley
- Алексей Плещеев – Бабушка и внучек
- Loneliness is a prison by Vladimir Marku
- ‘In the Pink’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- Кондратий Рылеев – Из письма к Булгарину
- Юрий Калугин – Счастье любит тишину
- Владимир Высоцкий – На Филиппинах бархатный сезон
- Soul Receives From Soul by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- At the bottom by Vasil Slavov
- Asleep by Wilfred Owen
- Parted by Siegfried Sassoon
- Give Me Back My Rags #12 by Vasko Popa
- Огюст Барбье – Прогресс
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
- Total Recount by Pamela Griffiths
- To a Beloved Child by Patrick Pearse
- The Uses of the Eye by Paul Blackburn
- The Undeniable Pressure of Existence by Patricia Fargnoli
- The Triumph Of Achilles by Paul Celan
- The Sea and the Shadow by Paul Blackburn
- The Rising and Falling of Trees by Patricia Fargnoli
- The One Night Stand : An Approach to the Bridge by Paul Blackburn
- The Mother by Patrick Pearse
- The Choice of Trees by P.J.Reed
- The Café Filtre by Paul Blackburn
- The Blue Guitar by P. K. Page
- That Light by Paul Hostovsky
- Teenager by Patrick Connors
- Teasing by Pamela Griffiths
- Summon Me by Walid Saba
- Stony Grey Soil by Patrick Kavanagh
- Spring Thing by Paul Blackburn
- Single Traveller by P. K. Page
- Shancoduff by Patrick Kavanagh
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