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:
- Юнна Мориц – В цирке
- Ode On Indolence poem – John Keats poems
- Василий Жуковский – Могущество, слава и благоденствие России
- Олег Бундур – Всё живёт
- Supernatural Songs by William Butler Yeats
- To A Little Girl That Has Told A Lie
- Вера Павлова – Они влюблены и счастливы
- victor.html
- Nutting by William Wordsworth
- Just Thinking by William Stafford
- Epigram—Divine Service at Lamington by Robert Burns
- Wisdom in Love by Lutfi Abdallah a.k.a Laso
- Robert Burns: Will Ye Go To The Indies, My Mary?:
- Blank by Nizar Sartawi
- Robert Burns: Auld Rob Morris:
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
- A Smuggler’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Ripple Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Recantation by Rudyard Kipling
- A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Nativity by Rudyard Kipling
- A General Summary by Rudyard Kipling
- A Code of Morals by Rudyard Kipling
- A Charm by Rudyard Kipling
- A Carol by Rudyard Kipling
- You Personify God’s Message by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Who Says Words With My Mouth? by Rumi
- Who is at my door? by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- When I am asleep and crumbling in the tomb by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- What Hidden Sweetness Is There by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Weary not of us, for we are very beautiful by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- We Are As The Flute by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Until You’ve Found Pain by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Two Kinds of Intelligence by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- At the Twilight by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- This is Love by Rumi
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.