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:
- Василий Курочкин – Ни в мать, ни в отца
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабкор (Лбом пробив безграмотья горы)
- Robert Burns: Halloween: The following poem will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, notes are added to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the west of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state, in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such honour the author with a perusal, to see the remains of it among the more unenlightened in our own.-R.B.
- Омар Хайям – Двести лет проживешь, или тысячу лет
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- Against A Sickness To The Female Double Principle God
- Orion
- My Father’s Hats by Mark Irwin
- I Have Become Very Hairy by Yehuda Amichai
- Владимир Высоцкий – Дорога, дорога, счёта нет шагам
- Hart-Leap Well by William Wordsworth
- A Farewell to False Love by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Alabaster by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet Vi
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о сумасшедшем доме
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
- The Garden by Abraham Cowley
- A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley
- O fortunatus nimium, etc., a translation out of Virgil by Abraham Cowley
- The Essay on Agriculture by Abraham Cowley
- Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley
- The Death Of A Fly by Russell Edson
- The Changeling by Russell Edson
- The Breast by Russell Edson
- The Autopsy by Russell Edson
- The Alfresco Moment by Russell Edson
- A Performance At Hog Theater by Russell Edson
- Erasing Amyloo by Russell Edson
- On The Eating Of Mice by Russell Edson
- The Closet by Russell Edson
- Soup Song by Russell Edson
- The Bridge by Russell Edson
- Mr. Brain by Russell Edson
- One Lonely Afternoon by Russell Edson
- Ape And Coffee by Russell Edson
- Accidents by Russell Edson
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