To make sure
You have not said:
“I love you,”
They smell your breath.
They even smell your heart
Trying times are these, my darling.
They flog love
Tied to the post of the cul-de-sac
We must hide love in the closet.
In this serpentine maze
This crooked cold corner
They feed the fire
With poems and songs
Thinking, too, is risky.
Those who, late at night, knock on the door,
Are there to kill the lamp.
We must hide the light in the closet.
Then there are the butchers
Stationed at all cross-roads,
Armed with a block and a bloody cleaver.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Surgically,
They plant smiles on lips,
And songs in the mouths.
We must hide joy in the closet.
On lilies and lilacs,
They roast the canaries.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Drunk with victory, the Devil,
Celebrates our wake.
We must hide God in the closet.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимн взятке
- An Appointment by William Butler Yeats
- Джон Донн – Мощи
- Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling
- Robert Burns: The Flowery Banks Of Cree:
- That Light by Paul Hostovsky
- Song—The Tear-drop—“Wae is my heart” by Robert Burns
- Portrait of a Lady by T. S. Eliot
- “Here have I learnt the little that I know” poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Корнилов – Звезды
- A Voice From The West poem – Alfred Austin
- Motel Pool by P. K. Page
- Николай Гумилев – Кенгуру
- Sonnet Xiv
- Unsung Hands by Satish Verma
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
- Dublinesque by Philip Larkin
- Dockery And Son by Philip Larkin
- Days by Philip Larkin
- Cut Grass by Philip Larkin
- Counting by Philip Larkin
- Continuing To Live by Philip Larkin
- Church Going by Philip Larkin
- Breadfruit by Philip Larkin
- Best Society by Philip Larkin
- Aubade by Philip Larkin
- At Grass by Philip Larkin
- Arrival by Philip Larkin
- Annus Mirabilis by Philip Larkin
- An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin
- Ambulances by Philip Larkin
- A Study Of Reading Habits by Philip Larkin
- You Can Have It by Philip Levine
- Wisteria by Philip Levine
- Where We Live Now by Philip Levine
- What Work Is by Philip Levine
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
