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:
- Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College by Thomas Gray
- “Yes! Thou Art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved” by William Wordsworth
- Song—A Waukrife Minnie by Robert Burns
- Lets go by Vinko Kalinić
- Know, Celia, Since Thou Art So Proud by Thomas Carew
- Омар Хайям – До того, как мы чашу судьбы изопьем
- Олег Григорьев – Прометей
- Mending Socks by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Джон Донн – Ничто
- Teacher
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осеннее утро
- What The Thrush Said. Lines From A Letter To John Hamilton Reynolds poem – John Keats poems
- Adaptation by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- Иннокентий Анненский – Гармония
- Ольга Берггольц – Наш сад
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
- In a Spring Grove by William Allingham
- Half-waking by William Allingham
- Down on the Shore by William Allingham
- Autumnal Sonnet by William Allingham
- An Evening by William Allingham
- Amy Margaret’s Five Year Old by William Allingham
- After Sunset by William Allingham
- Aeolian Harp by William Allingham
- Adieu to Belshanny by William Allingham
- Abbey Assaroe by William Allingham
- A Singer by William Allingham
- A Seed by William Allingham
- A Memory by William Allingham
- A Gravestone by William Allingham
- A Dream by William Allingham
- A Day-Dream’s Reflection by William Allingham
- Zunsheen In The Winter by William Barnes
- Zummer Thoughts In Winter Time by William Barnes
- Zummer Evenèn Dance by William Barnes
- A Zong by William Barnes
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