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:
- Three Songs by William Shakespeare
- A Woman Unconscious by Ted Hughes
- Percy Janes Boarding The Bus
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1790 by William Cowper
- Letters to the Otherworld
- An Imperial Elegy by Wilfred Owen
- From the heart of your heart by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Robert Burns: O Bonie Was Yon Rosy Brier:
- The Queen’s Rival by Sarojini Naidu
- Ad Martialem by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Robert Burns: The Deil’s Awa Wi’ The Exciseman:
- Homing by Satish Verma
- Владимир Британишский – Будто катаясь на коньках
- The Three Gentle Shepherds poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Picture Puzzle Piece by Shel Silverstein
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
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Спортивный марш
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Солнце садится
- Василий Тредиаковский – Видеть все женские лица
- Василий Тредиаковский – В сем озере бедные любовники
- Василий Тредиаковский – В белости ее румяной
- Василий Тредиаковский – Песенка любовна
- Василий Тредиаковский – Описание грозы, бывшей в Гааге
- Василий Тредиаковский – О коль мне тамо сладка веселия было
- Василий Тредиаковский – Ну, так уже я не стал быть вашим отныне
- Василий Тредиаковский – Невозможно быть довольным
- Василий Тредиаковский – Мое сердце все было в страсти
- Василий Тредиаковский – Леший и мужик
- Василий Тредиаковский – К почтению, льзя объявить любовь
- Василий Тредиаковский – Дворы там весьма суть уединенны
- Василий Тредиаковский – Будь жестока, будь упорна
- Василий Жуковский – Деревенский сторож в полночь
- Василий Жуковский – Цветок
- Василий Жуковский – Человек
- Василий Жуковский – Был у меня товарищ
- Василий Жуковский – Бородинская годовщина
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