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:
- Little Girl Dancing by Susan King Saunders
- The First Part: Sonnet 12 – Ah! burning thoughts, now let me take some rest, by William Drummond
- Ametas And Thestylis Making Hay-Ropes poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- In a Minor Key poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Dog’s love by Vinko Kalinić
- initial mother’s day eve by matthew scott harris
- Disconnect by Snowdon King
- Robert Burns: A Man’s A Man For A’ That:
- Lines on the Fall of Fyers by Robert Burns
- Sea Shell poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A child said, What is the grass by Walt Whitman
- April Aubade by Sylvia Plath
- St. Andrew’s Bay poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ольга Берггольц – Заметь, заметь, Как легчает сердце
- Нина Воронель – Высокосный год
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
- Николай Гумилев – Лесной пожар
- Николай Гумилев – Леопарди (Набросок)
- Николай Гумилев – Леонард
- Николай Гумилев – Лаос
- Николай Гумилев – Куранты любви
- Николай Гумилев – Крыса
- Николай Гумилев – Крест
- Николай Гумилев – Корабль
- Николай Гумилев – Командиру 5-го Александровского полка
- Николай Гумилев – Колокол
- Николай Гумилев – Когда я был влюблен
- Николай Гумилев – Когда спокойно так и равнодушно мы
- Николай Гумилев – Ключ в лесу
- Николай Гумилев – Кенгуру
- Николай Гумилев – Кармен худа, коричневатый
- Николай Гумилев – Капитаны
- Николай Гумилев – Канцона вторая
- Николай Гумилев – Канцона (Лучшая музыка в мире)
- Николай Гумилев – Канцона (Бывает в жизни человека)
- Николай Гумилев – Какою музыкой мой слух взволнован
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.