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:
- The Shepherd’s Brow, Fronting Forked Lightning, Owns poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Grass is a taut crew; poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
- Гавриил Державин – Жан Расин. Рассказ Терамена
- Universal Prayer poem – Alexander Pope
- Villon by Siegfried Sassoon
- Let me draw your face by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- Elegy III. Anno Aet. 17. On The Death Of The Bishop Of Winchester (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- This we Have Now by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Fool’s Money Bags poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Berket And The Stars by William Carlos Williams
- Again
- Some Clouds by Steve Kowit
- Night Words
- April Is The Saddest Month by William Carlos Williams
- A Letter To Doctor Ingelo, then With My Lord Whitlock, Amba poem – Andrew Marvell poems
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
- To Delia by William Cowper
- To A Young Friend, On His Arriving At Cambridge Wet, When No Rain Had Fallen There by William Cowper
- The Symptoms of Love by William Cowper
- The Silkworm by William Cowper
- The Secrets Of Divine Love Are To Be Kept by William Cowper
- The Rose by William Cowper
- The Perfect Sacrifice by William Cowper
- The Parrot by William Cowper
- The Lily And The Rose by William Cowper
- The Ice Palace by William Cowper
- The Distress’d Travellers; or, Labour in Vain by William Cowper
- Sunset And Sunrise (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper
- Strada’s Nightingale by William Cowper
- Sonnet To Henry Cowper, Esq. by William Cowper
- Sonnet To A Young Lady On Her Birth-Day by William Cowper
- Repose In God by William Cowper
- Pity For Poor Africans by William Cowper
- On The Queen’s Visit To London, The Night Of The 17th March 1789 by William Cowper
- On The Loss Of The “Royal George” by William Cowper
- On The Ice Islands Seen Floating In The German Ocean by William Cowper
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