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:
- Юлий Даниэль – А в это время
- Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos
- Владимир Маяковский – Богомольное
- Николай Заболоцкий – Голубиная книга
- Who’s Who by W H Auden
- Monster’s Cave
- Voltaire At Ferney by W H Auden
- Владимир Британишский – Царство – одно, но России-то – две
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на иллюминацию, представленную ее императорскому Величеству от их императорских высочеств в Ораниенбауме 1750 года июля 31 дня
- We embraced and talked about rains by Vinko Kalinic
- The Heritage by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Winter’s Tale by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Близ берегов
- Юлия Друнина – Есть время любить
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 66. Томас Мур.
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
- The Voice by Sara Teasdale
- The Unseen by Sara Teasdale
- The Unchanging by Sara Teasdale
- The Tree by Sara Teasdale
- The Tree Of Song by Sara Teasdale
- The Treasure by Sara Teasdale
- The Storm by Sara Teasdale
- The Star by Sara Teasdale
- The Song Maker by Sara Teasdale
- The Song For Colin by Sara Teasdale
- The Solitary by Sara Teasdale
- The Silent Battle by Sara Teasdale
- The Shrine by Sara Teasdale
- The Sea Wind by Sara Teasdale
- The Sanctuary by Sara Teasdale
- The Rose by Sara Teasdale
- The Rose And The Bee by Sara Teasdale
- The River by Sara Teasdale
- The Return by Sara Teasdale
- The Princess In The Tower by Sara Teasdale
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.