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:
- Sonnet 72: O, lest the world should task you to recite by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: The Winter Of Life:
- Innocence
- Алексей Плещеев – Как солнце блещет ярко
- Такахама Кёси – Кончик трости моей
- Moonless darkness stands between poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Lying Down by Robert Desnos
- The Music O’ The Dead by William Barnes
- In The Early Pearly Morning
- The Sergeant’s Weddin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Freddy by Stevie Smith
- I Remember by Stevie Smith
- Алексей Жемчужников – Памятник Пушкину
- Владимир Британишский – Будто катаясь на коньках
- The springtime of Lovers has come by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
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 Early by Sylvia Plath
- Last Words by Sylvia Plath
- Landowners by Sylvia Plath
- Insolent Storm Strikes At The Skull by Sylvia Plath
- In Plaster by Sylvia Plath
- In Midas’ Country by Sylvia Plath
- Go Get The Goodly Squab by Sylvia Plath
- For A Fatherless Son by Sylvia Plath
- Flute Notes From A Reedy Pond by Sylvia Plath
- Faun by Sylvia Plath
- Family Reunion by Sylvia Plath
- Fable Of The Rhododendron Stealers by Sylvia Plath
- Epitaph In Three Parts by Sylvia Plath
- Epitaph For Fire And Flower by Sylvia Plath
- Electra On Azalea Path by Sylvia Plath
- Dream With Clam-Diggers by Sylvia Plath
- Doom Of Exiles by Sylvia Plath
- Dirge For A Joker by Sylvia Plath
- Death & Co. by Sylvia Plath
- Crossing The Water by Sylvia Plath
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.