He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh,
Red oleanders twisted in His hair,
His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh,
Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare.
The green and stagnant waters lick His feet,
And from their filmy, iridescent scum
Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat,
Rise with His gifts: Death and Delirium.
His messengers: They bear the deadly taint
On spangled wings aloft and far away,
Making thin music, strident and yet faint,
From golden eve to silver break of day.
The baffled sleeper hears th’ incessant whine
Through his tormented dreams, and finds no rest
The thirsty insects use his blood for wine,
Probe his blue veins and pasture on his breast.
While far away He in the marshes lies,
Staining the stagnant water with His breath,
An endless hunger burning in His eyes,
A famine unassuaged, whose food is Death.
He hides among the ghostly mists that float
Over the water, weird and white and chill,
And peasants, passing in their laden boat,
Shiver and feel a sense of coming ill.
A thousand burn and die; He takes no heed,
Their bones, unburied, strewn upon the plain,
Only increase the frenzy of His greed
To add more victims to th’ already slain.
He loves the haggard frame, the shattered mind,
Gloats with delight upon the glazing eye,
Yet, in one thing, His cruelty is kind,
He sends them lovely dreams before they die;
Dreams that bestow on them their heart’s desire,
Visions that find them mad, and leave them blest,
To sink, forgetful of the fever’s fire,
Softly, as in a lover’s arms, to rest.

A few random poems:
- Омар Хайям – Много зла и коварства таится кругом
- Олег Широв – Она бесценна, просто ангел
- Lines to Mr. John Kennedy by Robert Burns
- Robert Burns: Epistle To James Smith:
- Where Is David, the Next King of Israel? by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Британишский – Философы! Не верьте островам
- Quiet by Tony Hoagland
- Give Me Back My Rags by Vasko Popa
- Владимир Корнилов – Игра судьбы
- Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry
- The Cup of Life by Mike Yuan
- The Sanctuary by Sara Teasdale
- The Fountain by William Wordsworth
- Implosions
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (Куда так проворно, жидовка младая)
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
- He, who was born poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Halls grew darker poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Don’t fear death poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- A Girl Sang a Song poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- A Girl Was Singing In A Church Choir poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Wizard Way poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Twins poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Titanic poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Tent poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rose and the Cross poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Quest poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Priestess of Panormita poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Pentagram poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Neophyte poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Mantra-Yoga poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Interpreter poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Hermit poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Hawk and the Babe poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Garden of Janus poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
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
Violet Nicolson ( 1865 – 1904); otherwise known as Adela Florence Nicolson (née Cory), was an English poetess who wrote under the pseudonym of Laurence Hope, however she became known as Violet Nicolson. In the early 1900s, she became a best-selling author. She committed suicide and is buried in Madras, now Chennai, India.