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:
- English Poetry. Mark Akenside. The Pleasures of Imagination. Марк Эйкенсайд.
- Валерий Брюсов – Это было? Неужели?
- A Whispered Tale by Siegfried Sassoon
- 1991-II by Wendell Berry
- Epigram on Parting with a kind Host in the Highlands by Robert Burns
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Мой сад
- Houses Of Dreams by Sara Teasdale
- Song—A Lass wi’ a Tocher by Robert Burns
- Sappho to Phaon (Ovid Heroid XV) poem – Alexander Pope
- Another Song Of A Fool by William Butler Yeats
- English Poetry. Katharine Tynan. A Woman Commends Her Little Son. Кэтрин Тайнен.
- Омар Хайям – Когда ветер у розы подол разорвет
- Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux
- Альфред де Мюссе – Печаль
- Arabia by Walter de la Mare
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
- Not the Pilot. by Walt Whitman
- Not My Enemies Ever Invade Me. by Walt Whitman
- Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only. by Walt Whitman
- Not Heat Flames up and Consumes. by Walt Whitman
- No Labor-Saving Machine. by Walt Whitman
- Night on The Prairies. by Walt Whitman
- Native Moments. by Walt Whitman
- Mystic Trumpeter, The. by Walt Whitman
- Myself and Mine. by Walt Whitman
- My Picture-Gallery. by Walt Whitman
- Mother and Babe. by Walt Whitman
- Miracles. by Walt Whitman
- Mediums. by Walt Whitman
- Me Imperturbe. by Walt Whitman
- Mannahatta. by Walt Whitman
- Manhattan Streets I Saunter’d, Pondering. by Walt Whitman
- Look Down, Fair Moon. by Walt Whitman
- Longings for Home. by Walt Whitman
- Long, too Long, O Land! by Walt Whitman
- Long I Thought that Knowledge. 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.