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:
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Moor-Hen:
- Where Is David, the Next King of Israel? by Vachel Lindsay
- Олег Бундур – А мне-то ничего
- Singing Darkness by Satish Verma
- Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Year 1788:
- The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
- Interpret The Light
- Ballade Of The Bookworm poem – Andrew Lang poems
- On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper
- It Is a Beauteous Evening by William Wordsworth
- A Thing of Beauty (Endymion) poem – John Keats poems
- A Tale. June 1793 by William Cowper
- Hyperion poem – John Keats poems
- the branches of pine tree by Mousumi Guha Roy
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
- Наум Коржавин – Генерал
- Наум Коржавин – Гамлет
- Наум Коржавин – Еж и Заяц
- Наум Коржавин – Есть у тех, кому нету места
- Наум Коржавин – Еще в мальчишеские годы
- Наум Коржавин – Двадцатые годы
- Наум Коржавин – Друзьям
- Наталья Хрущева – Дождик и художник
- Наталья Хрущева – Большой и маленький
- Наталья Хрущева – Бабушка рыцаря
- Наталья Шевченко – Самолёт
- Наталья Шевченко – Прости прости Меня Отец
- Наталья Шевченко – Привилегия
- Наталья Шевченко – Он не в себе
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на иллюминацию, представленную ее императорскому Величеству от их императорских высочеств в Ораниенбауме 1750 года июля 31 дня
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на иллюминацию 1747 года перед зимним домом
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на день восшествия на престол Ее Величества 1753 года
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на день рождения Ее Величества
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись благоверному и Великому князю Александру Невскому
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 5 к статуе Петра Великого
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.