To Frank O’Hara
Sometimes when my eyes are red
I go up on top of the RCA Building
and gaze at my world, Manhattan-
my buildings, streets I’ve done feats in,
lofts, beds, coldwater flats
-on Fifth Ave below which I also bear in mind,
its ant cars, little yellow taxis, men
walking the size of specks of wool-
Panorama of the bridges, sunrise over Brooklyn machine,
sun go down over New Jersey where I was born
& Paterson where I played with ants-
my later loves on 15th Street,
my greater loves of Lower East Side,
my once fabulous amours in the Bronx
faraway-
paths crossing in these hidden streets,
my history summed up, my absences
and ecstasies in Harlem-
-sun shining down on all I own
in one eyeblink to the horizon
in my last eternity-
matter is water.
Sad,
I take the elevator and go
down, pondering,
and walk on the pavements staring into all man’s
plateglass, faces,
questioning after who loves,
and stop, bemused
in front of an automobile shopwindow
standing lost in calm thought,
traffic moving up & down 5th Avenue blocks behind me
waiting for a moment when …
Time to go home & cook supper & listen to
the romantic war news on the radio
… all movement stops
& I walk in the timeless sadness of existence,
tenderness flowing thru the buildings,
my fingertips touching reality’s face,
my own face streaked with tears in the mirror
of some window-at dusk-
where I have no desire-
for bonbons-or to own the dresses or Japanese
lampshades of intellection-
Confused by the spectacle around me,
Man struggling up the street
with packages, newspapers,
ties, beautiful suits
toward his desire
Man, woman, streaming over the pavements
red lights clocking hurried watches &
movements at the curb-
And all these streets leading
so crosswise, honking, lengthily,
by avenues
stalked by high buildings or crusted into slums
thru such halting traffic
screaming cars and engines
so painfully to this
countryside, this graveyard
this stillness
on deathbed or mountain
once seen
never regained or desired
in the mind to come
where all Manhattan that I’ve seen must disappear.
A few random poems:
- Константин Бальмонт – Эльзи
- A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices by Stephen Crane
- Her Anxiety by William Butler Yeats
- Омар Хайям – Не зли других и сам не злись
- Xai Kou1
- Supernatural Songs by William Butler Yeats
- Василий Жуковский – Тоска по милом
- Sonnet CI by William Shakespeare
- Василий Жуковский – Теснятся все к тебе во храм
- Written In A Fit Of Illness. R. S. S. by William Cowper
- Unrequited Pathological
- Curtis by Susan King Saunders
- Dawn
- Федор Тютчев – К Н.
- Elm by Sylvia Plath
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
- Resolution And Independence by William Wordsworth
- Repentance by William Wordsworth
- Remembrance Of by William Wordsworth
- Power Of Music by William Wordsworth
- Picture of Daniel in the Lion’s Den at Hamilton Palace by William Wordsworth
- Personal Talk by William Wordsworth
- On The Same Occasion by William Wordsworth
- On The Final Submission Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth
- On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic by William Wordsworth
- On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford by William Wordsworth
- On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth
- O’erweening Statesmen Have Full Long Relied by William Wordsworth
- O’er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain by William Wordsworth
- Ode by William Wordsworth
- Ode To Lycoris. May 1817 by William Wordsworth
- Ode to Duty by William Wordsworth
- Ode Composed On A May Morning by William Wordsworth
- October, 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Occasioned By The Battle Of Waterloo February 1816 by William Wordsworth
- O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art by William Wordsworth
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
