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:
- The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Языков – Прощальная песня (В последний раз приволье жизни братской)
- Spiritual Memories of Mother by Raj Napal
- Наум Коржавин – Есть у тех, кому нету места
- Song—O Tibbie, I hae seen the day by Robert Burns
- An Autumn Reverie by William Topaz McGonagall
- Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art by William Shakespeare
- The Childless Father by William Wordsworth
- Leave This by Rabindranath Tagore
- Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats poem – John Keats poems
- Epistle to Robert Graham, Esq., of Fintry by Robert Burns
- Георгий Иванов – Теперь, когда быстрее лавы
- Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea by William Shakespeare
- It was a Lover and his Lass by William Shakespeare
- The Voice by Shel Silverstein
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
- William Gilmore Simms – William Gilmore Simms
- Ode–Shell The Old City! Shell! by William Gilmore Simms
- Morris Island by William Gilmore Simms
- Hast Thou A Song For A Flower by William Gilmore Simms
- Flight To Nature by William Gilmore Simms
- Blessings On Children by William Gilmore Simms
- Hymn To Woden by William Lisle Bowles
- Hope, An Allegorical Sketch by William Lisle Bowles
- Epitaph On H. Walmsley, Esq., by William Lisle Bowles
- Elegy Written At Hotwells, Bristol by William Lisle Bowles
- Distant View Of England From The Sea by William Lisle Bowles
- Death Of Captain Cooke, by William Lisle Bowles
- Battle Of Corruna by William Lisle Bowles
- Avenue In Savernake Forest by William Lisle Bowles
- At Tynemouth Priory by William Lisle Bowles
- At Oxford by William Lisle Bowles
- At Malvern by William Lisle Bowles
- At Dover by William Lisle Bowles
- Approach Of Summer by William Lisle Bowles
- Abba Thule’s Lament For His Son Prince Le Boo by William Lisle Bowles
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.