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:
- T.A.H. poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- King Arthur’s Men Have Come Again by Vachel Lindsay
- The Welcome
- Palms and Hearts by Olawuyi Mutiu
- The Lark by William Barnes
- Иида Дакоцу – Сквозь зимнюю мглу
- Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot
- a_single_man.html
- Thatchen O’ The Rick by William Barnes
- Book Fourth [Summer Vacation] by William Wordsworth
- Sonnet CXXII by William Shakespeare
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Home. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- Robert Burns: Address To The Deil:
- Ode In Memory Of The American Volunteers Fallen For France
- Gift Of The Great – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Bereavement by William Lisle Bowles
- Beautiful Aberfoyle by William Topaz McGonagall
- Balmoral Castle by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Ode in Time of Hesitation by William Vaughn Moody
- An Excursion Steamer Sunk in the Tay by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to the New Tay Bridge by William Topaz McGonagall
- An Address to Shakespeare by William Topaz McGonagall
- All Kinds by William Wright Harris
- A Welcome by William Browne
- A Soldier’s Reprieve by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Requisition to the Queen by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Poetry Reading At West Point by William Matthews
- A Grey Day by William Vaughn Moody
- I see the Four-fold Man by William Blake
- An Imitation of Spenser by William Blake
- Gwin King of Norway by William Blake
- Intorduction to the Songs of Experience by William Blake
- Fair Elanor by William Blake
- England! awake! awake! awake! by William Blake
- I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day by William Blake
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.