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:
- America To Great Britain by Washington Allston
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Кэрролла
- Christopher Okigbo – Looking Back at His Short-lived Life and Taking Stock of His Poetic Legacy
- An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Kar by Robert Browning
- Old Times by Rixa white
- Владимир Гиппиус стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Владимир Гиппиус – Поэзия на Poetry Monster
- Robert Burns: Inscribed On A Work Of Hannah More’s: Presented to the Author by a Lady.
- Владимир Корнилов – Щитовидка
- For Roman Polanski by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Alabaster by Sarojini Naidu
- To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady’s Brother and Sister by Phillis Wheatley
- My rains by Vinko Kalinic
- The Storm by Rainbow Reed
- Robert Burns: The Auld Farmer’s New-Year-Morning Salutation To His Auld Mare, Maggie: On giving her the accustomed ripp of corn to hansel in the New Year.
- He is more than a hero by Sappho
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
- Владимир Корнилов – Муки свободы
- Владимир Корнилов – Молодая поэзия
- Владимир Корнилов – Место
- Владимир Корнилов – Маросейка
- Владимир Корнилов – Лермонтов
- Владимир Корнилов – Кривая
- Владимир Корнилов – Командировка на Север
- Владимир Корнилов – Иннокентий Анненский
- Владимир Корнилов – Игра судьбы
- Владимир Корнилов – Гумилев
- Владимир Корнилов – Глухота
- Владимир Корнилов – Гитара
- Владимир Корнилов – Флейта в метро
- Владимир Корнилов – Эпоха
- Владимир Корнилов – Двое
- Владимир Корнилов – Дождь обычный
- Владимир Корнилов – Достается, наверно, непросто
- Владимир Корнилов – Дом
- Владимир Корнилов – Державинское
- Владимир Корнилов – Чтение
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