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:
- Жан де Лафонтен – Лев, сраженный Человеком
- Владимир Маяковский – Чтоб нас не заела разруха зубами голодных годов… (Главполитпросвет №7)
- Robert Burns: Presentation Stanzas To Correspondents:
- Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan by William Shakespeare
- A Dialogue Between The Soul And Body poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Shadow poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- I think it rains by Wole Soyinka
- Гавриил Державин – О удовольствии
- I a soul by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Константин Бальмонт – Эльзи
- Зинаида Александрова – Шарик
- Alone by Yvor Winters
- Ольга Седакова – Ветер прощанья
- As Through the Wild Green Hills of Wyre poem – A. E. Housman
- Гавриил Державин – К правде
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
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Липы
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Леля
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Л. Е. Ф.
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Слезы и звуки
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Скажите
- Владимир Бенедиктов – С могучей страстию в мучительной борьбе
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Роза и дева
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ревность
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ребенку
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Развалины
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Разлука
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Раздумье
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Распутие
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Радуга
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Пытки
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Прощание с саблею
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Прометей
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Привет старому 1858-му году
- Владимир Бенедиктов – При иллюминации
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Предостережение
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.