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 Germans On The Heighs Of Hochheim by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Высоцкий – Это вовсе не френч-канкан
- Songs From “Prince Lucifer” I – Grave-Digger’s Song poem – Alfred Austin
- A Japanese Wood-Carving poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Олег Бундур – Без меня
- Woman by Tala Bar
- Distant Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Обновление
- A Green Stream. by Wang Wei
- How…? by Nizar Sartawi
- Miscast I poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Duns Scotus’s Oxford poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Robert Burns: O Bonie Was Yon Rosy Brier:
- A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness by William Butler Yeats
- Иван Бунин – Апрель
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
- On The High Price Of Fish by William Cowper
- On the Grasshopper (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On The Death Of The Bishop Of Ely. Anno Aet. 17. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- On The Death Of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch by William Cowper
- On The Death Of Damon. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- On The Benefit Received By His Majesty From Sea-Bathing, In The Year 1789 by William Cowper
- On The Author Of Letters On Literature by William Cowper
- On The Astrologers (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Receiving Heyne’s Virgil From Mr. Hayley by William Cowper
- On Receiving Hayley’s Picture by William Cowper
- On Receipt Of My Mother’s Picture by William Cowper
- On Pedigree. From Epicharmus by William Cowper
- On Pallas Bathing, From A Hymn Of Callimachus by William Cowper
- On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper
- On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica by William Cowper
- On Niobe (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Mrs. Montague’s Feather Hangings by William Cowper
- On Miltiades by William Cowper
- On Late Acquired Wealth (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On Invalids (From The Greek) 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