A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love.
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse
had risen at his urging.
Not that at five each separate stair would writhe
under the milkman’s tramp; that morning light
so coldly would delineate the scraps
of last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;
that on the kitchen shelf amoong the saucers
a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own–
envoy from some village in the moldings…
Meanwhile, he, with a yawn,
sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard,
declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror,
rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes;
while she, jeered by the minor demons,
pulled back the sheets and made the bed and found
a towel to dust the table-top,
and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove.
By evening she was back in love again,
though not so wholly but throughout the night
she woke sometimes to feel the daylight coming
like a relentless milkman up the stairs.
A few random poems:
- South Africa by Ronald G. Auguste
- Some Last Questions by W. S. Merwin
- Robert Burns: Verses To Clarinda: Sent with a Pair of Wine-Glasses.
- In Praise of Laziness by William Wycherley
- Laws for Creations. by Walt Whitman
- The Book Of The World by William Drummond
- Amity’s Death by SAAJIDA GORA
- Bubbles from Eternity by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Eclogue:–John, Jealous At Shroton Feäir by William Barnes
- Ballades IV – Of Life poem – Andrew Lang poems
- MANY NAMESAKES by Satish Verma
- Impotens poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Wm. Hood, Senr., In Tarbolton:
- Inspiration poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Эмиль Верхарн – Занавески
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
- The Human Tragedy ACT IV poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT III poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT II poem – Alfred Austin
- The Human Tragedy ACT I poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- The Golden Year! poem – Alfred Austin
- On Returning To England poem – Alfred Austin
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- Nocturnal Vigils poem – Alfred Austin
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- My Winter Rose poem – Alfred Austin
- “My soul is sunk in all–suffusing shame” poem – Alfred Austin
- “My northern blood exults to face” poem – Alfred Austin
- Mozart’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- Mozart’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- Messalina poem – Alfred Austin
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- Mafeking poem – Alfred Austin
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.