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:
- Алексей Жемчужников – Сословные речи
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- Ode to Superstition
- Sussex by Rudyard Kipling
- Федор Сологуб – Слышу голос милой
- Robert Burns: Lament Of Mary, Queen Of Scots, On The Approach Of Spring:
- A Token by Robert Creeley
- Apology to Delia by William Cowper
- Come not when I am dead poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux
- God fashioned the ship of the world carefully. by Stephen Crane
- Playthings by Rabindranath Tagore
- Unsung Hands by Satish Verma
- Иван Дмитриев – Слепец, Собака его и Школьник
- Making Light Of It by Philip Levine
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
- Old Ladies’ Home by Sylvia Plath
- Ode For Ted by Sylvia Plath
- Notes To A Neophyte by Sylvia Plath
- Nick And The Candlestick by Sylvia Plath
- New Year On Dartmoor by Sylvia Plath
- Never Try To Trick Me With A Kiss by Sylvia Plath
- Mussel Hunter At Rock Harbor by Sylvia Plath
- Morning In The Hospital Solarium by Sylvia Plath
- Moonsong At Morning by Sylvia Plath
- Monologue At 3 AM by Sylvia Plath
- Miss Drake Proceeds To Supper by Sylvia Plath
- Metamorphoses Of The Moon by Sylvia Plath
- Memoirs Of A Spinach-Picker by Sylvia Plath
- Mary’s Song by Sylvia Plath
- Man In Black by Sylvia Plath
- Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath
- Love Is A Parallax by Sylvia Plath
- Letter To A Purist by Sylvia Plath
- Letter In November by Sylvia Plath
- A Lesson In Vengeance by Sylvia Plath
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