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:
- A Terre by Wilfred Owen
- Юнна Мориц – Лето
- Morning Express by Siegfried Sassoon
- Late Fragment by Raymond Carver
- Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Polyphemus poem – Alfred Austin
- We Two—How Long We were Fool’d. by Walt Whitman
- Илья Эренбург – Жилье в горах, как всякое жилье
- Владимир Маяковский – Советская азбука (Железо куй, пока горячее…)
- “Brave Schill! By Death Delivered” by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Вход воспрещается
- A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling
- Schoolroom On A Wet Afternoon by Vernon Scannell
- First Light
- The Ancient Deception by Rixa White
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
- Love Sonnet X poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Love Sonnet LX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Love Sonnet LVIII poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Girl-Gladness poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Fortune poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Elegy On An Australian Schoolboy poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Books poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Sonnet Of Motherhood XLV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- Love Sonnet XXV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- Love Sonnet LIV poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems | Poetry Monster
- You’re The Only One poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Victims poem – Yaseen Anwer poems | Poetry Monster
- The Senses of Art poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- The Details Are poem – Zhivka Baltadzhieva poems | Poetry Monster
- The 9th Inning poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Songs of Depression poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Someone left a pen… poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Some Singers And Their Traits poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Sin poem – Yao Ying poems | Poetry Monster
- Sabbath, My Love poem – Yehudah ha-Levi 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