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:
- Alone in the Wind, on the Prairie by Vachel Lindsay
- Eclogue:–Racketèn Joe by William Barnes
- Moonlight by Vita Sackville-West
- Robert Burns: A Rose-Bud By My Early Walk:
- Love Preparing to Fly poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Atavism by William Stafford
- The Grauballe Man by Seamus Heaney
- Everlasting Wander by Rixa White
- Dinner Date by Rainbow Reed
- The Tavern by Willa Cather
- The Story of Ung by Rudyard Kipling
- Medallion by Sylvia Plath
- Hide-And-Seek by Vasko Popa
- Abuses and Awards poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Dreamtime by Olivia Lewis
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
- Михаил Лермонтов – Чаша жизни
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бухариной
- Михаил Лермонтов – Булевар
- Михаил Лермонтов – Боюсь не смерти я
- Лермонтов – Бородино: Стихотворение “Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром”, читать текст стиха полностью онлайн на Poetry Monster
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бой с барсом (Отрывок Мцыри)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Блистая, пробегают облака
- Михаил Лермонтов – Благодарность
- Михаил Лермонтов – Без вас хочу сказать вам много
- Михаил Лермонтов – Беглец
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бартеневой
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (Куда так проворно, жидовка младая)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (из Байрона)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ах! Ныне я не тот совсем
- Михаил Лермонтов – Арфа
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ангел
- Михаил Лермонтов – А. А. Олениной (Ах! Анна Алексевна)
- Михаил Кузмин – Звезда Афродиты
- Михаил Кузмин – Зимнее солнце
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