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:
- Василий Жуковский – Деревенский сторож в полночь
- The Pretense of Gathering Pebbles by the Shore by Syed Kawsar Jamal
- Sunshine by Vin lan
- Mother’s Death 1981 by Michael S Wilson
- On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Befire the Battle by Thomas Moore
- Sonnet 03
- REFLECTING THE PRAISES by Satish Verma
- Владимир Маяковский – Чье рождество
- Solomon To Sheba by William Butler Yeats
- Gratitude, Addressed To Lady Hesketh by William Cowper
- Николай Гумилев – Кармен худа, коричневатый
- The Mirror by Robert Creeley
- Такахама Кёси – Как ярко сияет
- The Beginning of the End by Rixa White
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
- Screw-Guns by Rudyard Kipling
- Russia To The Pacifists by Rudyard Kipling
- Route Marchin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Romulus and Remus by Rudyard Kipling
- Road-Song of the Bandar-Log by Rudyard Kipling
- Rimmon by Rudyard Kipling
- Rimini by Rudyard Kipling
- Recessional (A Victorian Ode) by Rudyard Kipling
- Recessional by Rudyard Kipling
- Rebirth by Rudyard Kipling
- Puck’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Public Waste by Rudyard Kipling
- Prophets at Home by Rudyard Kipling
- Prelude by Rudyard Kipling
- Possibilities by Rudyard Kipling
- Poor Honest Men by Rudyard Kipling
- Philadelphia by Rudyard Kipling
- Pagett, M.P. by Rudyard Kipling
- Outsong in the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- Our Fathers Also 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.