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:
- Николай Заболоцкий – Движение
- With Ships the Sea was Sprinkled Far and Nigh by William Wordsworth
- Dining-Room Tea by Rupert Brooke
- Note to Reality by Tony Hoagland
- Ольга Седакова – Азаровка
- An Evening Walk by William Wordsworth
- On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford by William Wordsworth
- Зинаида Александрова – Смешные человечки
- Orlando Furioso Canto 12 by Ludovico Ariosto
- word of God by Raj Arumugam
- Николай Гумилев – Зачарованный викинг, я шел по земле
- Still Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
- Woods by Wendell Berry
- The Rose Tree by William Butler Yeats
- Two sparrows and my heart by Nizar Sartawi
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
- Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Calais, August 15, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- By The Side Of The Grave Some Years After by William Wordsworth
- By The Seaside by William Wordsworth
- “By Moscow Self-Devoted To A Blaze” by William Wordsworth
- “Brook! Whose Society The Poet Seeks” by William Wordsworth
- British Freedom by William Wordsworth
- “Brave Schill! By Death Delivered” by William Wordsworth
- Bothwell Castle by William Wordsworth
- Book Twelfth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored ] by William Wordsworth
- Book Thirteenth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored Concluded] by William Wordsworth
- Book Third [Residence at Cambridge] by William Wordsworth
- Book Tenth {Residence in France continued] by William Wordsworth
- Book Sixth [Cambridge and the Alps] by William Wordsworth
- Book Seventh [Residence in London] by William Wordsworth
- Book Second [School-Time Continued] by William Wordsworth
- Book Ninth [Residence in France] by William Wordsworth
- Book Fourth [Summer Vacation] by William Wordsworth
- Book Fourteenth [conclusion] by William Wordsworth
- Book First [Introduction-Childhood and School Time] by William Wordsworth
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