Labor Pains

I am sick today,

sick in my body,

eyes wide open, silent,

I lie on the bed of childbirth.

Why do I, so used to the nearness of death,

to pain and blood and screaming,

now uncontrollably tremble with dread?

A nice young doctor tried to comfort me,

and talked about the joy of giving birth.

Since I know better than he about this matter,

what good purpose can his prattle serve?

Knowledge is not reality.

Experience belongs to the past.

Let those who lack immediacy be silent.

Let observers be content to observe.

I am all alone,

totally, utterly, entirely on my own,

gnawing my lips, holding my body rigid,

waiting on inexorable fate.

There is only one truth.

I shall give birth to a child,

truth driving outward from my inwardness.

Neither good nor bad; real, no sham about it.

With the first labor pains,

suddenly the sun goes pale.

The indifferent world goes strangely calm.

I am alone.

It is alone I am.

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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 

• Lorelei by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lesbos by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Leaving Early by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Landowners by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lament by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Kindness by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Jilted by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Insomniac by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Incommunicado by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• I Want, I Want by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• I Am Vertical by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Heavy Woman by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Hardcastle Crags by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gulliver by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Green Rock, Winthrop Bay by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gold Mouths Cry by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Goatsucker by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
• Gigolo by Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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