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:
- Robert Burns: How Long And Dreary Is The Night :
- Владимир Маяковский – Эй, граждане, берегите воду!.. (Главполитпросвет №249)
- Юрий Галансков стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Юрий Галансков – Поэзия на Poetry Monster
- After a Tempest by William Cullen Bryant
- Libation
- Ольга Берггольц – Ответ
- Николай Гумилев – Когда я был влюблен
- Николай Глазков – Девятое мая
- Antediluvian Kural On Twitter
- Яков Полонский – Орел и голубка
- I Saw His Round Mouth’s Crimson by Wilfred Owen
- Wisdom in Love by Lutfi Abdallah a.k.a Laso
- Breaking and Entering by Ralph Angel
- He Bids His Beloved Be At Peace by William Butler Yeats
- Falling Action by Ruth Madievsky
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
- Earthy Anecdote by Wallace Stevens
- A Dish Of Peaches In Russia by Wallace Stevens
- Depression Before Spring by Wallace Stevens
- A Clear Day And No Memories by Wallace Stevens
- In The Carolinas by Wallace Stevens
- Another Weeping Woman by Wallace Stevens
- Anecdote Of Canna by Wallace Stevens
- You Felons on Trial in Courts. by Walt Whitman
- Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours. by Walt Whitman
- Years of the Modern. by Walt Whitman
- Year that Trembled. by Walt Whitman
- Year of Meteors, 1859 ’60. by Walt Whitman
- World, Take Good Notice. by Walt Whitman
- World Below the Brine, The. by Walt Whitman
- With Antecedents. by Walt Whitman
- With All Thy Gifts. by Walt Whitman
- Whoever You are, Holding Me now in Hand. by Walt Whitman
- Who Learns My Lesson Complete? by Walt Whitman
- Who is now Reading This? by Walt Whitman
- Whispers of Heavenly Death. by Walt Whitman
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.