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:
- Владимир Набоков – К Родине
- Childhood by Margaret Walker
- Вера Полозкова – И катись бутылкой по автостраде
- Sonnet CXXX: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare
- Николай Заболоцкий – Офорт
- Last Invocation, The. by Walt Whitman
- Alone
- On The Dunes by Sara Teasdale
- Sketch in Verse, inscribed to the Right Hon. C. J. Fox by Robert Burns
- Poems by William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience and the Book of Thel
- Before the Battle by Siegfried Sassoon
- Deity of my dreams by Vasishta Sharma Gudi
- Sonnet 113: Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind by William Shakespeare
- Юлия Жадовская – Чем ярче шумный пир
- Гавриил Державин – Пчелка
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
- One’s-Self I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- One Hour to Madness and Joy. by Walt Whitman
- Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City. by Walt Whitman
- On the Beach at Night, Alone. by Walt Whitman
- On Journeys Through The States. by Walt Whitman
- Old Ireland. by Walt Whitman
- Offerings. by Walt Whitman
- Of the Visage of Things. by Walt Whitman
- Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances. by Walt Whitman
- Of Him I Love Day and Night. by Walt Whitman
- O You Whom I Often and Silently Come. by Walt Whitman
- O Tan-faced Prairie Boy. by Walt Whitman
- O Sun of Real Peace. by Walt Whitman
- O Star of France. by Walt Whitman
- O Living Always—Always Dying. by Walt Whitman
- O Hymen! O Hymenee! by Walt Whitman
- O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig! by Walt Whitman
- Now List to my Morning’s Romanza. by Walt Whitman
- Now Finale to the Shore. by Walt Whitman
- Not Youth Pertains to Me. by Walt Whitman
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