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:
- A prayer to the Wind by Thomas Carew
- Алексей Толстой – Три побоища
- The Little Boy And The Old Man by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Маяковский – Долой волокиту! Да здравствует революционная инициатива! (РОСТА № 493 )
- Robert Burns: Mr. William Smellie -A Sketch:
- Woods by Wendell Berry
- The Flower of Mending by Vachel Lindsay
- Written at Stonehenge by Thomas Warton
- Listening To Rwanda Genocide by Satish Verma
- Dedication by Rainer Maria Rilke
- A Lesson In Vengeance by Sylvia Plath
- Sonnet 70: That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect by William Shakespeare
- Стефан Малларме – Появление
- English Poetry. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. The Blasphemy of Guns. Элла Уилкокс.
- Sonnet XI. On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer poem – John Keats poems
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
- Ode to Beer, an Irish Song
- Whose beer is that? A Poem about Beer.
- An Ode to Beer
- To – – – – –
- Yes, ’tis the pulse of life! my fears were vain!
- Ancient pornography before pornography. 10 Most Shocking Sex Artifacts From The Ancient World. Amazing works of erotic art of the ancient world.
- Sonnet to Italy by Felicia Dorothea Hemans
- Ode to Superstition
- A Practical Young Woman poem – Irwin Russell “,
- An Epistle to A Friend
- The Pleasures of Memory
- Oh could my Mind
- Italy
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Indifference. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. In the Forest. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. In June. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Hymn to Spiritual Desire. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Home. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- English Poetry. William Barnes. Third Collection. The Broken Heart. Уильям Барнс.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. He Who Loves. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
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.