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:
- The Realists by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: I’m O’er Young To Marry Yet:
- Владимир Корнилов – Учитель
- Epigram—Divine Service at Lamington by Robert Burns
- Sonnet CXLI by William Shakespeare
- A Ripple Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Human Being Needs Strong Tea
- Lines Written in Windsor Forest poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The house where I was born (01) by Yves Bonnefoy
- Георгий Иванов – То, о чем искусство лжет
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи с поднесением выписок
- Camelot & The Greek Widow by Graham Rowlands
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Haunted. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- I Have a Fire for You in my Mouth by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- I too want to ESCAPE by Neelam Sinha
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 Dark House by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Choral Union by Siegfried Sassoon
- Survivors by Siegfried Sassoon
- Suicide In The Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon
- Stretcher Case by Siegfried Sassoon
- Storm and Sunlight by Siegfried Sassoon
- Stand-To: Good Friday Morning by Siegfried Sassoon
- South Wind by Siegfried Sassoon
- Song-Books of the War by Siegfried Sassoon
- Slumber-Song by Siegfried Sassoon
- Sick Leave by Siegfried Sassoon
- Secret Music by Siegfried Sassoon
- Remorse by Siegfried Sassoon
- Reconciliation by Siegfried Sassoon
- Prelude to an Unwritten Masterpiece by Siegfried Sassoon
- Picture-Show by Siegfried Sassoon
- Parted by Siegfried Sassoon
- October by Siegfried Sassoon
- Noah by Siegfried Sassoon
- Nimrod in September by Siegfried Sassoon
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.