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:
- Владимир Британишский – На конференции молодых геофизиков
- Song-Books of the War by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Thin People by Sylvia Plath
- Lines For Winter by Mark Strand
- Between the Showers poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Li Po, the moon and me by Raj Arumugam
- Heart To Heart by Rita Dove
- Николай Гербель – На смерть воробья
- Sonnet 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
- As With Recitation And The Loss Of A Kuhi
- Komori by T. Wignesan
- Avec seulement du noir by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Song—A Waukrife Minnie by Robert Burns
- Джон Донн – Любовная наука
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
- Николай Заболоцкий – На лестницах
- Николай Заболоцкий – Можжевеловый куст
- Николай Заболоцкий – Монолог в лесу
- Николай Заболоцкий – Мир однолик, но двойственна природа
- Николай Заболоцкий – Меркнут знаки зодиака
- Николай Заболоцкий – Лодейников
- Николай Заболоцкий – Летний вечер
- Николай Заболоцкий – Лесная сторожка
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ласточка
- Николай Заболоцкий – Кулак, владыка батраков
- Николай Заболоцкий – Кто мне откликнулся в чаще лесной
- Николай Заболоцкий – Когда вдали угаснет свет дневной
- Николай Заболоцкий – Как мыши с котом воевали
- Николай Заболоцкий – Испытание воли
- Николай Заболоцкий – Искушение
- Николай Заболоцкий – Гурзуф ночью
- Николай Заболоцкий – Гроза идет
- Николай Заболоцкий – Городок
- Николай Заболоцкий – Горийская симфония
- Николай Заболоцкий – Голубиная книга
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