Meeting
by A. S. J. Tessimond
Dogs take new friends abruptly and by smell,
Cats’ meetings are neat, tactual, caressive.
Monkeys exchange their fleas before they speak.
Snakes, no doubt, coil by coil reach mutual knowledge.
We then, at first encounter, should be silent;
Not court the cortex but the epidermis;
Not work from inside out but outside in;
Discover each other’s flesh, its scent and texture;
Familiarize the sinews and the nerve-ends,
The hands, the hair; before the inept lips open.
Instead of which we are resonant, explicit.
Our words like windows intercept our meaning.
Our four eyes fence and flinch and awkwardly
Wince into shadow, slide oblique to ambush.
Hands stir, retract. The pulse is insulated.
Blood is turned inwards, lonely; skin unhappy …
While always under all, but interrupted,
Antennae stretch … waver … and almost … touch.

A few random poems:
- The Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Олег Григорьев – С длинным батоном под мышкой
- The Natural History of Elephants by Milton Acorn
- Robert Burns: Ballads on Mr. Heron’s Election, 1795: Second-Election Day
- Schoolroom On A Wet Afternoon by Vernon Scannell
- Валерий Брюсов – Ленин
- Владимир Маяковский – Товарищ! Шахтер раздет… (РОСТА №603)
- Вера Звягинцева – Шафрановым загаром
- Robert Burns: The Rantin’ Dog, The Daddie O’t:
- Владимир Маяковский – Плакат о жилищно-строительном займе
- Though In My Firmament Thou Wilt Not Shine
- The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Владимир Степанов – Синичка в электричке
- Федор Тютчев – Как нас ни угнетай разлука
- Владимир Маяковский – Помните
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
- I am only the house of your beloved by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- I am only the house of your beloved by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- I am a sculptor, a molder of form by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- How Long by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Ghazal of Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Ghazal of Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Ghazal 314 by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Ghazal 119 by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Every day I bear a burden by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Every day I bear a burden by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Did I Not Say To You by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Description of Love by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Confused and Distraught by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Come, Come, Whoever You Are by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Bring Wine by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Book1 Prologue by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Birdsong by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Because I Cannot Sleep by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Be With Those Who Help Your Being by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Be Lost In The Call by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
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