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:
- A Riddle Song. by Walt Whitman
- Жан де Лафонтен – Человек и его Изображение
- Death by William Butler Yeats
- In The Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet CV by William Shakespeare
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Заболоцкий – Счастливый день
- With Scindia to Delphi by Rudyard Kipling
- Love Flower
- Владимир Маяковский – Рабочий при капитализме работал из-под палки… (РОСТА №666)
- Along The Way by Rabindranath Tagore
- Silver Trails by Satish Verma
- The Captive Trumpeter by William Somervile
- Memory by William Butler Yeats
- Stubborn by Roland Flint
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 Степанов – Хлопотунья
- Владимир Степанов – Воробей
- Владимир Степанов – Волнушки
- Владимир Степанов – Весёлый транспорт
- Владимир Степанов – В лесу осиновом
- Владимир Степанов – Утёнок (Буква У)
- Владимир Степанов – Угадай-ка, это кто?
- Владимир Степанов – Тула-город мастеров
- Владимир Степанов – Телефон (Буква Т)
- Владимир Степанов – Суворовец
- Владимир Степанов – Следом за летом осень
- Владимир Степанов – Синичка в электричке
- Владимир Степанов – Шарик (Буква Ш)
- Владимир Степанов – Рукавицы для лисицы
- Владимир Степанов – Робот (Буква Р)
- Владимир Степанов – Рассказ оружейника
- Владимир Степанов – Про меня и муравья
- Владимир Степанов – Праздник сентября
- Владимир Степанов – Потемнели ветви
- Владимир Степанов – Подберёзовик и подосиновик
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.