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:
- The Gardener XL: An Unbelieving Smile by Rabindranath Tagore
 - Friday’s Child by W H Auden
 - Patience poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
 - The King of Yellow Butterflies by Vachel Lindsay
 - The Girt Wold House O’ Mossy Stwone by William Barnes
 - Love Poem to My Husband of Thirty-one Years by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
 - Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
 - Как на Масляной неделе
 - I See so Deeply Within Myself by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
 - The Gift by Rabindranath Tagore
 - Жан де Лафонтен – Виноградник и Олень
 - Written In Very Early Youth by William Wordsworth
 - Above the Battle’s Front by Vachel Lindsay
 - Dusk In June by Sara Teasdale
 - Владимир Луговской – Мальчики играют на горе
 
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
- Алексей Толстой – Ушкуйник
 - Алексей Толстой – Угораздило кофейник
 - Алексей Толстой – Ты знаешь, я люблю
 - Алексей Толстой – Ты жертва жизненных тревог
 - Алексей Толстой – Ты почто, злая кручинушка
 - Алексей Толстой – Ты не спрашивай, не распытывай
 - Алексей Толстой – Ты любишь в нем лишь первую любовь
 - Алексей Толстой – Три побоища
 - Алексей Толстой – То было раннею весной
 - Алексей Толстой – Темнота и туман застилают мне путь
 - Алексей Толстой – Тебя так любят все
 - Алексей Толстой – Сватовство
 - Алексей Толстой – Стасюлевич и Маркевич
 - Алексей Толстой – Средь шумного бала, случайно
 - Алексей Толстой – Смеркалось, жаркий день бледнел неуловимо
 - Алексей Толстой – Слова для мазурки
 - Алексей Толстой – Слепой
 - Алексей Толстой – Сижу да гляжу я всe, братцы, вон в эту сторонку
 - Алексей Толстой – Шумит на дворе непогода
 - Алексей Толстой – С тех пор как я один
 
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