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:
- Ольга Берггольц – Ты будешь ждать
- The City Limits poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- On A Good Man (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Олег Григорьев – Схватили за ногу правую
- A Bay In Anglesey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Flowers Of The Dust by John Oxenham
- The Alien poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- minimalism_and_the_elm_choka.html
- Константин Батюшков – Мщение
- Николай Заболоцкий – Смерть врача
- In A Restaurant by Sara Teasdale
- Омар Хайям – Не являй друзьям печальный вид
- Sonnet poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath
- On the Threshold poem – Amy Levy 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
- I’ll go and be a Sodger by Robert Burns
- Halloween by Robert Burns
- Green Grow The Rashes by Robert Burns
- Fragment on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—The Night was Still by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—“My Jean!” by Robert Burns
- Fragment—Her Flwoing Locks by Robert Burns
- For a’ that and a’ that by Robert Burns
- Fickle Fortune: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Fareweel To A’Our Scottish Fame by Robert Burns
- Extempore Reply to an Invitation by Robert Burns
- Extempore on some commemorations of Thomson by Robert Burns
- Extempore in the Court of Session by Robert Burns
- Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to an Excise Division by Robert Burns
- Esteem for Chloris by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on Wm. Graham, Esq., of Mossknowe by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Muir by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Hood, Senior by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on “Wee Johnnie” by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on the same by Robert Burns
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.