A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
I am walking rapidly through striations of light and dark thrown under an arcade.
I am a woman in the prime of life, with certain powers
and those powers severely limited
by authorities whose faces I rarely see.
I am a woman in the prime of life
driving her dead poet in a black Rolls-Royce
through a landscape of twilight and thorns.
A woman with a certain mission
which if obeyed to the letter will leave her intact.
A woman with the nerves of a panther
a woman with contacts among Hell’s Angels
a woman feeling the fullness of her powers
at the precise moment when she must not use them
a woman sworn to lucidity
who sees through the mayhem, the smoky fires
of these underground streets
her dead poet learning to walk backward against the wind
on the wrong side of the mirror
A few random poems:
- A Consolation to Cuckholds by William Wycherley poems
- With a Book poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- In Poetry by Rifat Ilgaz
- The Withering Of The Boughs by William Butler Yeats
- Tell me not here, it needs not saying poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 126. Love is and was my Lord and King poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Poems by William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience and the Book of Thel
- The Skies by William Cullen Bryant
- Юрий Левитанский – Грач над березовой чащей
- Cake by Roger McGough
- A Dainty Thing’s The Villanelle by William Ernest Henley
- Ballade Of True Wisdom poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The Vision Of Cassandra
- Владимир Высоцкий – Жан, Жак, Гийом, Густав нормальные французы
- Madeira From The Sea by Sara Teasdale
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
- Robert Burns: Will Ye Go To The Indies, My Mary?:
- Robert Burns: Versified Reply To An Invitation:
- Robert Burns: To Gavin Hamilton, Esq., Mauchline,: Recommending a Boy.
- Robert Burns: Despondency: An Ode:
- Robert Burns: Home.:
- Robert Burns: The Lament: Occasioned by the unfortunate issue of a Friend’s Amour.
- Robert Burns: To Ruin:
- Robert Burns: To A Mountain Daisy: On turning down with the Plough, in April, 1786.
- Robert Burns: Ploughman’s Life, The:
- Robert Burns: Montgomerie’s Peggy:
- Robert Burns: Epistle To The Rev. John M’math: Inclosing A Copy Of “Holy Willie’s Prayer,” Which He Had Requested
- Robert Burns: Ah, Woe Is Me, My Mother Dear: Paraphrase of Jeremiah, 15th Chap., 10th verse
- Robert Burns: Third Epistle To J. Lapraik:
- Robert Burns: The Holy Fair:
- Robert Burns: Epistle To John Goldie, In Kilmarnock: Author Of The Gospel Recovered.
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Death Of Robert Ruisseaux:
- Robert Burns: Rantin’, Rovin’ Robin:
- Robert Burns: Tho’ Cruel Fate Should Bid Us Part:
- Robert Burns: One Night As I Did Wander:
- Robert Burns: Second Epistle To J. Lapraik:
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.