A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
the quality of being complete; unbroken condition; entirety
~ Webster
A wild patience has taken me this far
as if I had to bring to shore
a boat with a spasmodic outboard motor
old sweaters, nets, spray-mottled books
tossed in the prow
some kind of sun burning my shoulder-blades.
Splashing the oarlocks. Burning through.
Your fore-arms can get scalded, licked with pain
in a sun blotted like unspoken anger
behind a casual mist.
The length of daylight
this far north, in this
forty-ninth year of my life
is critical.
The light is critical: of me, of this
long-dreamed, involuntary landing
on the arm of an inland sea.
The glitter of the shoal
depleting into shadow
I recognize: the stand of pines
violet-black really, green in the old postcard
but really I have nothing but myself
to go by; nothing
stands in the realm of pure necessity
except what my hands can hold.
Nothing but myself?….My selves.
After so long, this answer.
As if I had always known
I steer the boat in, simply.
The motor dying on the pebbles
cicadas taking up the hum
dropped in the silence.
Anger and tenderness: my selves.
And now I can believe they breathe in me
as angels, not polarities.
Anger and tenderness: the spider’s genius
to spin and weave in the same action
from her own body, anywhere —
even from a broken web.
The cabin in the stand of pines
is still for sale. I know this. Know the print
of the last foot, the hand that slammed and locked the door,
then stopped to wreathe the rain-smashed clematis
back on the trellis
for no one’s sake except its own.
I know the chart nailed to the wallboards
the icy kettle squatting on the burner.
The hands that hammered in those nails
emptied that kettle one last time
are these two hands
and they have caught the baby leaping
from between trembling legs
and they have worked the vacuum aspirator
and stroked the sweated temples
and steered the boat there through this hot
misblotted sunlight, critical light
imperceptibly scalding
the skin these hands will also salve.
A few random poems:
- Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell
- Inscription to Chloris by Robert Burns
- sealed_appropriate.html
- The Riddle by W H Auden
- To the Muse poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Elegy I. To Charles Deodati (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper
- Новелла Матвеева – Величие?
- Зинаида Александрова – В гости к бабушке
- The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell
- To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu poem – Alexander Pope
- Николай Заболоцкий – Летний вечер
- Ольга Берггольц – Придешь, как приходят слепые
- Вергилий – Георгики
- Fool’s Money Bags poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- In Memory of Sigmund Freud by W. H. Auden
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
- Bereavement by William Lisle Bowles
- Beautiful Aberfoyle by William Topaz McGonagall
- Balmoral Castle by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Ode in Time of Hesitation by William Vaughn Moody
- An Excursion Steamer Sunk in the Tay by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to the New Tay Bridge by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to Shakespeare by William Topaz McGonagall
- All Kinds by William Wright Harris
- A Welcome by William Browne
- A Soldier’s Reprieve by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Requisition to the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Poetry Reading At West Point by William Matthews
- A Grey Day by William Vaughn Moody
- I see the Four-fold Man by William Blake
- An Imitation of Spenser by William Blake
- Gwin King of Norway by William Blake
- Intorduction to the Songs of Experience by William Blake
- Fair Elanor by William Blake
- England! awake! awake! awake! by William Blake
- I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day by William Blake
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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.