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 Summary History of Lord Clive by William Topaz McGonagall
- The Story Of Our Lives by Mark Strand
- Leopard by Stanley Wilkin
- Apology to Mr. Syme for not dining with him by Robert Burns
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Come, Send Round the Wine by Thomas Moore
- The Tame Bird Was In A Cage by Rabindranath Tagore
- Power
- Новелла Матвеева – Река
- Владимир Орлов – Ночной листок
- Bahut Kathin Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Untitled XVII by Yunus Emre
- Омар Хайям – День прошел, и о нем позабудь поскорей
- Владимир Высоцкий – Ленинградская блокада
- Landscapes poem – Andree Chedid 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
- Shall I like An Eternal World by Nithin Purple
- Sea World by Nin Andrews
- For Roman Polanski by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Red Roses by Nithin Purple
- Rainy Day by Nikhil Jain
- “Flight to the Moon” by Nina Gabriel
- First Look at Mom by Nikhil Jain
- The Poet’s Grave by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- When Lovely Woman Stoops To Folly by Oliver Goldsmith
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Picture by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Palms and Hearts by Olawuyi Mutiu
- Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Only in my dreams by Nina Gabriel
- On Fair Compassion by Nithin Purple
- On An Insight On Grecian Spring by Nithin Purple
- On An Arctic Winter by Nithin Purple
- On A World Of Imaginary & Freedom Dwell by Nithin Purple
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.