On Edges

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.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 Tame Bird Was In A Cage by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Sun Of The First Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Portrait — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Music Of The Rains – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Merchant by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Lost Star — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Last Bargain by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Kiss by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Kiss — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Home by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Hero — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Golden Boat by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXVII: Trust Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXVI: What Comes From Your Willing Hands by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XXIX: Speak To Me My Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener XI: Come As You Are by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LXXIX: I Often Wonder by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LVII: I Plucked Your Flower by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Gardener LV: It Was Mid-Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Call Of The Far — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works