Houses
by A. S. J. Tessimond
People who are afraid of themselves
Multiply themselves into families
And so divide themselves
And so become less afraid.
People who might have to go out
Into clanging strangers’ laughter,
Crowd under roofs, make compacts
To no more than smile at each other.
People who might meet their own faces
Or surprise their own voices in doorways
Build themselves rooms without mirrors
And live between walls without echoes.
People who might meet other faces
And unknown voices round corners
Build themselves rooms all mirrors
And live between walls all echoes.
People who are afraid to go naked
Clothe themselves in families, houses,
But are still afraid of death
Because death one day will undress them.

A few random poems:
- Where Shall We Go? by Vernon Scannell
- Khristna And His Flute
- Solitude poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Robert Burns: Lass Of Cessnock Banks, The:
- Олег Сердобольский – Футболист
- Orlando Furioso Canto 11 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Morning Poem #43 by Wanda Phipps
- Event by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Маяковский – Notre-Dame
- Steeds of Autumn by Todd H. C. Fischer
- The Rising and Falling of Trees by Patricia Fargnoli
- To A Young Lady Who Had Been Reproached For Taking Long Walks In The Country by William Wordsworth
- This Aloneness by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – В метро
- Юлия Друнина – Шторм
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
- Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law
- Shattered Head
- Rural Reflections
- Prospective Immigrants Please Note
- Power
- Planetarium
- Paula Becker To Clara Westhoff
- Our Whole Life
- Orion
- On Edges
- November 1968
- My Mouth Hovers Across Your Breasts
- Moving In Winter
- Miracle Ice Cream
- Living In Sin
- Integrity
- In Those Years
- In The Evening
- In A Classroom
- Implosions
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