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:
- A Forgetful Number by Vasko Popa
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- Hymn Before Action by Rudyard Kipling
- A Farewel To America to Mrs. S. W. by Phillis Wheatley
- A New Year’s Gift by William Strode
- A Lover To His Mistress by William Strode
- Li Po drowns by Raj Arumugam
- “Sadder than lark when lowering” poem – Alfred Austin
- A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Psalm 06 poem – John Milton poems
- These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell
- Владимир Британишский – Мальчики, девочки, литстудийцы
- Memories of West Street and Lepke by Robert Lowell
- Over The Roofs by Sara Teasdale
- Валерий Брюсов – Из песен Мальдуна
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
- happiness.html
- At the Zoo poem – A. A. Milne poem
- Vestiges poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- The Flash Reverses Time poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Que Sera Sera poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Old Boy poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Einstein Defining Special Relativity poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Poetry Monster
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Best Poems
- In Memoriam
- Taylor Swift
- Wisdom in Love by Lutfi Abdallah a.k.a Laso
- Why I Do Not Miss You! by Praveen Parasar
- Weaving waves by Shailendra Singh
- Trademark by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- Time Well-Served by Luis Estable
- This I Beg To Have by Luis Estable
- The True Lover by A. E. Housman
- The Song of My Heart by Olawuyi Mutiu
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.