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:
- An American by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Корнилов – Флейта в метро
- A Girl Was Singing In A Church Choir poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Mornèn by William Barnes
- Song On May Morning poem – John Milton poems
- Lament by Sylvia Plath
- I Come From There by Mahmoud Darwish
- Chocolate by Rita Dove
- Ralph to Mary poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Signals by Walid Saba
- The Poetic Principle by Mark Olynyk
- Николай Некрасов – Деревенские новости
- Ghazal of Rumi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Владимир Маяковский – России
- A Knocker poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster
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
- Memorials of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 I. Departure From The Vale Of Grasmere, August 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Matthew by William Wordsworth
- Maternal Grief by William Wordsworth
- Mark The Concentrated Hazels That Enclose by William Wordsworth
- Lucy by William Wordsworth
- Lucy Gray [or Solitude] by William Wordsworth
- Louisa: After Accompanying Her On A Mountain Excursion by William Wordsworth
- Look Now On That Adventurer Who Hath Paid by William Wordsworth
- London, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written On A Blank Leaf In A Copy Of The Author’s Poem “The Excursion,” by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written In Early Spring by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written As A School Exercise At Hawkshead, Anno Aetatis 14 by William Wordsworth
- Lines On The Expected Invasion, 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Lines Left Upon The Seat Of A Yew-Tree, by William Wordsworth
- Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
- Laodamia by William Wordsworth
- Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots by William Wordsworth
- It was an April morning: fresh and clear by William Wordsworth
- It Is No Spirit Who From Heaven Hath Flown by William Wordsworth
- It Is a Beauteous Evening by William Wordsworth
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.