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:
- Memoriam A. H. H.: 44. How fares it with the happy dead? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ольга Ермолаева – На каблуках-то и то к голове удалой
- Patience poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ode. Written On The Blank Page Before Beaumont And Fletcher’s Tragi-Comedy ‘The Fair Maid Of The In poem – John Keats poems
- Ho, everyone that thirsteth poem – A. E. Housman
- The Space Heater by Sharon Olds
- last_word_to_childhood.html
- Василий Жуковский – Светлане
- The Harvest Bow by Seamus Heaney
- AUTUMN GRAPES by Önder Kurt
- Love Of Life poem – Alfred Austin
- Orpheus by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Британишский – Снились двое товарищей по Салехарду
- Immigrants by Robert Frost
- I have no complaint by Sappho
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
- Fragment – Wee Willie Gray (Song) by Robert Burns
- Farewell to Eliza (Song) by Robert Burns
- On a Scotch Bard, gone to the West Indies by Robert Burns
- Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots by Robert Burns
- Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn by Robert Burns
- Impromptu on Dumourier’s Desertion of the French Republican Army by Robert Burns
- Grace before and after Meat by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Robert Aiken by Robert Burns
- Epistle to a Young Friend by Robert Burns
- Address to Beelzebub by Robert Burns
- A Grace after Meat by Robert Burns
- A Dream by Robert Burns
- A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton by Robert Burns
- A Bard’s Epitaph by Robert Burns
- Zion by Rudyard Kipling
- You Must n’t Swim… by Rudyard Kipling
- With Scindia to Delphi by Rudyard Kipling
- Wilful Missing by Rudyard Kipling
- White Horses by Rudyard Kipling
- When the Great Ark by Rudyard Kipling
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.