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:
- Ecstasy by Sarojini Naidu
- Borderland poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- the branches of pine tree by Mousumi Guha Roy
- Who Goes With Fergus? by William Butler Yeats
- Notice by Steve Kowit
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Пожар
- You Ask Me, Why, Tho’ Ill at Ease poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Константин Батюшков – Мечта
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Major Logan:
- On Going Unnoticed by Robert Frost
- Владимир Маяковский – Дожмем! В России буржуазия побеждена… (РОСТА №841)
- Sonnet. Written Upon The Top Of Ben Nevis poem – John Keats poems
- Sonnet II. To ****** poem – John Keats poems
- Вера Звягинцева – Карусель
- Mornèn by William Barnes
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
- Leaving and Leaving You by Sophie Hannah
- If It Were Beginning by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- Hypatia by Stanley Wilkin
- Homosexuality by Spencer Reece
- Highway to Happiness by Stacey Chillemi
- High school crush……lonesome awaits by Stephen Allen
- God’s Abdication by Snowdon King
- Family by Stacey Chillemi
- Everything He Did, He Did In Jest by stanley wilkin
- Entropy by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- Disconnect by Snowdon King
- Crazy Insane by Stephen Sweitzer
- By the Dusk – Ao Entardecer by Soaroir de Campos
- By Garpal Stream by Stanley Wilkin
- Buddha’s Laugh by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- Beautiful Moroccan by Stanley Wilkin
- Ambrosia by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- Alternate Destination by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- Adaptation by Sriparna Bandyopadhyay
- A Veterans Memories Breeze By In the Wind by Stacey Chillemi
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.