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:
- Владимир Маяковский – О том, как у Керзона с обедом разрасталась аппетитов зона
- God Has Pity On Kindergarten Children by Yehuda Amichai
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мао Цзедун большой шалун
- A Death-Day Recalled by Thomas Hardy
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- The Church An’ Happy Zunday by William Barnes
- Николай Языков – Послание к А. Н. Очкину (О, ты, с которым я, от юношеских лет)
- The (REAL) Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare by Ross D Tyler
- A Cat Called Shan by Pamela Griffiths
- An Apology for the Bottle Volcanic by Vachel Lindsay
- The Owners Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Best Society by Philip Larkin
- Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan
- Владимир Корнилов – Прежнее слово
- Гавриил Державин – Модное остроумие
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
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- Life by Marvin Bell
- Farmers Market by Mary TallMountain
- Let Him Free by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Eternal Existence by Mark Miller
- Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
- Et Le Marbre Creuse… by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Important thing’s in life by Martin Smith
- Images by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Illusions by Mark R Slaughter
- If Only by Mary Etta Metcalf
- I, or Someone Like Me by Marvin Bell
- He Said To by Marvin Bell
- Grumpy Old Man by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Giving Myself Up by Mark Strand
- Ghosts by Martina Reisz Newberry
- From The Long Sad Party by Mark Strand
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- Farmers Market by Mary TallMountain
- Eternal Existence by Mark Miller
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