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.

A few random poems:
- Farewell To Florida by Wallace Stevens
- Огюст Барбье – Кола ди Риенци
- Valgovinds Boat Song
- Afternoon song by Sunil Sharma
- Soul by Malkia Charlee NoCry
- On a certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
- O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- To A Girl In A Garden by Sappho
- Robert Burns: Lines Written In Friars’-Carse Hermitage:
- As Once The Winged Energy Of Delight by Rainer Maria Rilke
- 10 Valentine’s Day Scrapbooking Ideas With or Without Photos
- Years by Sylvia Plath
- Robert Burns: Sappho Redivivus: Fragment
- Dawned Again
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
- Note to Reality by Tony Hoagland
- National Trust by Tony Harrison
- Memory As a Hearing Aid by Tony Hoagland
- Marked with D. by Tony Harrison
- Lucky by Tony Hoagland
- Long Distance II by Tony Harrison
- Long Distance I by Tony Harrison
- Jet by Tony Hoagland
- Tony Harrison – Tony Harrison
- In Praise of Their Divorce by Tony Hoagland
- I Have News For You by Tony Hoagland
- Heredity by Tony Harrison
- Grammar by Tony Hoagland
- Don’t Tell Anyone by Tony Hoagland
- Disappointment by Tony Hoagland
- Coming and Going by Tony Hoagland
- Book Ends by Tony Harrison
- Big Grab by Tony Hoagland
- Bible Study by Tony Hoagland
- Beauty by Tony Hoagland
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