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 – Твоя молодость
- My Friend’s Light poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Rivers Don’t Gi’e Out by William Barnes
- The Princess: A Medley: Ask me no more poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Psalm 83 poem – John Milton poems
- Our Fathers Also by Rudyard Kipling
- Heart of God by Vachel Lindsay
- La Figlia che Piange by T. S. Eliot
- Владимир Высоцкий – Маски
- Владимир Лифшиц – Вступление
- Владимир Гиляровский – Белоснежные туманы
- Epistle To Mrs Teresa Blount.[On Her Leaving The Town After The Coronation] poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Омар Хайям – Лучше локон любимой, лаская, схватить
- Константин Батюшков – Мщение
- in praise of the moon by Raj Arumugam
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 am the earthworm, Lord of the Underworld by Raj Arumugam
- I am content here by Raj Arumugam
- How I saved Planet Earth by Raj Arumugam
- how far are you? by Raj Arumugam
- how did poetry begin? by Raj Arumugam
- Hey birds by Raj Arumugam
- Head of a Smiling Young Woman in Three-Quarter View by Raj Arumugam
- gum tree loved by the sky by Raj Arumugam
- good bye, my sweet angel by Raj Arumugam
- four legs good, two legs badOwl Hoots and Grasshopper Sings by Raj Arumugam
- four legs good, two legs bad by Raj Arumugam
- five moons for earth by Raj Arumugam
- Female ghost in the moonlight by Raj Arumugam
- emotional bond by Raj Arumugam
- doughnuts for sale by Raj Arumugam
- different lovers by Raj Arumugam
- did you die, Ophelia? by Raj Arumugam
- dear owl, forlorn like King Lear by Raj Arumugam
- dear moon, you will understand by Raj Arumugam
- days of quiet by Raj Arumugam
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.