A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
The world’s
not wanton
only wild and wavering
I wanted to choose words that even you
would have to be changed by
Take the word
of my pulse, loving and ordinary
Send out your signals, hoist
your dark scribbled flags
but take
my hand
All wars are useless to the dead
My hands are knotted in the rope
and I cannot sound the bell
My hands are frozen to the switch
and I cannot throw it
The foot is in the wheel
When it’s finished and we’re lying
in a stubble of blistered flowers
eyes gaping, mouths staring
dusted with crushed arterial blues
I’ll have done nothing
even for you?
A few random poems:
- Clouds Above The Sea by Philip Levine
- Song—Stay my Charmer by Robert Burns
- Olney Hymn 9: The Contrite Heart by William Cowper
- Ольга Седакова – Элегия осенней воды
- Владимир Маяковский – Для Донбасса формируется поезд с подарками (РОСТА №938)
- Владимир Высоцкий – Охота на кабанов
- Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Когда вдали от суеты всемирной
- Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (Part I) poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Edmonton, thy cemetery by Stevie Smith
- Виктор Шамонин-Версенев – Волк-дурень
- On a Certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope
- Alone in the Wind, on the Prairie by Vachel Lindsay
- I Want, I Want by Sylvia Plath
- Cinderella by Roald Dahl
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
- Golden Eyes
- From Behind The Lattice
- Feroza
- Feroke
- Fate Knows No Tears
- Farewell
- Fancy
- Famine Song
- Early Love
- Disappointment
- Deserted Gipsys Song Hillside Camp
- Dedication
- Dedication To Malcolm Nicolson
- Camp Followers Song Gomal River
- Back To The Border
- Au Salon
- Atavism
- Ashore
- Among The Sandhills
- Among The Rice Fields
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.