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:
- Passion Of My Heart by Stevens Cadet
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Низами Гянджеви – Искендер-наме – Страница 13 из 15
- Владимир Маяковский – Октябрьские частушки
- The Cat in the Kitchen by Robert Bly
- Afternoon Rain in State Street poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- At Carnoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- With No Experience In Such Matters by Stephen Dunn
- Rimmon by Rudyard Kipling
- For Sidney Bechet by Philip Larkin
- dance of life by Raj Arumugam
- Dans les filets de midi by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Анатолий Жигулин – Не надо бояться памяти
- Vaishnavi Prakash – Vaishnavi Prakash
- Lalila To The Ferengi Lover
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
- Dark Wood, Dark Water by Sylvia Plath
- Dark House by Sylvia Plath
- Danse Macabre by Sylvia Plath
- Cut by Sylvia Plath
- Crystal Gazer by Sylvia Plath
- Contusion by Sylvia Plath
- Cinderella by Sylvia Plath
- Childless Woman by Sylvia Plath
- Child by Sylvia Plath
- Channel Crossing by Sylvia Plath
- Candles by Sylvia Plath
- Bucolics by Sylvia Plath
- Brasilia by Sylvia Plath
- Blue Moles by Sylvia Plath
- Berck-Plage by Sylvia Plath
- Barren Woman by Sylvia Plath
- Aquatic Nocturne by Sylvia Plath
- April Aubade by Sylvia Plath
- April 18 by Sylvia Plath
- Among The Narcissi 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.