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:
- Владимир Маяковский – О том, как некие сектантцы зовут рабочего на танцы
- Holy Thursday (Innocence) by William Blake
- A Roxbury Garden poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Голодные! Пан Украину грабит… (РОСТА №106)
- The Statesmen poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- “Goldie Pinklesweet…” by Roald Dahl
- Honour
- Kinu Goala’s Alley – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Robert Burns: Nithsdale’s Welcome Hame:
- Fight to a Finish by Siegfried Sassoon
- Ок Мельникова – Моя муза любитель блюза
- Silvia by William Shakespeare
- The Settle An’ The Girt Wood Vire by William Barnes
- The Common A-Took In by William Barnes
- He Said To by Marvin Bell
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
- The Defeat of Youth poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Decameron poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Alien poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Summer Stillness poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Stanzas poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Song of Poplars poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Social Amenities poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- September poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Scenes Of The Mind poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Revelation poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Return From Business poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Private Property poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Points And Lines poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Poem poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Panic poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Out Of The Window poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- On The Bus poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Minoan Porcelain poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Love Song poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- L’Après-Midi D’un Faune poem – Aldous Huxley 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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.