A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
When the ice starts to shiver
all across the reflecting basin
or water-lily leaves
dissect a simple surface
the word ‘drowning’ flows through me.
You built a glassy floor
that held me
as I leaned to fish for old
hooks and toothed tin cans,
stems lashing out like ties of
silk dressing-gowns
archangels of lake-light
gripped in mud.
Now you hand me a torn letter.
On my knees, in the ashes, I could never
fit these ripped-up flakes together.
In the taxi I am still piecing
what syllables I can
translating at top speed like a thinking machine
that types out ‘useless’ as ‘monster’
and ‘history’ as ‘lampshade’.
Crossing the bridge I need all my nerve
to trust to the man-made cables.
The blades on that machine
could cut you to ribbons
but its function is humane.
Is this all I can say of these
delicate books, scythe-curved intentions
you and I handle? I’d rather
taste blood, yours or mine, flowing
from a sudden slash, than cut all day
with blunt scissors on dotted lines
like the teacher told.
A few random poems:
- Lullaby by William Butler Yeats
- Song Of The Wandering Jew by William Wordsworth
- To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope
- Sonnet To A Young Lady On Her Birth-Day by William Cowper
- Юлия Жадовская – Всё ты уносишь, нещадное время
- Shrodon Feäir by William Barnes
- Desire # 4 by Patricia Fargnoli
- The Fishermen, The Gulls & The Bible People by Michael Estabrook
- Михаил Кузмин – Туманный день пройдет уныло
- Landowners by Sylvia Plath
- Linda Deäne by William Barnes
- Ольга Седакова – Стансы третьи (Вино и плавание)
- Омар Хайям – Мой друг, о завтрашнем заботиться не след
- Эмиль Верхарн – Хвала человеческому телу
- A Roxbury Garden poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- Look not in my eyes, for fear poem – A. E. Housman
- Loitering with a Vacant Eye poem – A. E. Housman
- Loitering with a Vacant Eye poem – A. E. Housman
- It Nods and Curtseys and Recovers poem – A. E. Housman
- Into My Heart an Air that Kills poem – A. E. Housman
- In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad poem – A. E. Housman
- In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad poem – A. E. Housman
- If Truth in Hearts That Perish poem – A. E. Housman
- If By Chance Your Eye Offend You poem – A. E. Housman
- If By Chance Your Eye Offend You poem – A. E. Housman
- I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded poem – A. E. Housman
- I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded poem – A. E. Housman
- Hughley Steeple poem – A. E. Housman
- Hughley Steeple poem – A. E. Housman
- Ho, everyone that thirsteth poem – A. E. Housman
- Ho, everyone that thirsteth poem – A. E. Housman
- Here Dead We Lie poem – A. E. Housman
- From Far, From Eve and Morning poem – A. E. Housman
- From Far, From Eve and Morning poem – A. E. Housman
- Fragment of a Greek Tragedy poem – A. E. Housman
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.