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:
- On Looking Into The Eyes Of A Demon Lover by Sylvia Plath
- What the People Said by Rudyard Kipling
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Памяти Александра Цатуриана
- Doubts by Rupert Brooke
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Семик
- Xai Kou From Book Seeds Of Faith
- Василий Курочкин – Старая песня
- Зинаида Александрова – Дозор
- A Time to Talk by Robert Frost
- The Callous Statues by Shahida Latif
- The New Faces by William Butler Yeats
- Words Of Advice by Ronald G. Auguste
- Look You, I’ll Go Pray by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Британишский – О человеке
- I’ve Been Working So Hard by Shel Silverstein
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 Британишский – На конференции молодых геофизиков
- Владимир Британишский – На берегу
- Владимир Британишский – Мы топор и лопату кладем про запас
- Владимир Британишский – Мы кончили нашу работу
- Владимир Британишский – Можга
- Владимир Британишский – Молодой Толстой
- Владимир Британишский – Молния ударяет
- Владимир Британишский – Мне скучно
- Владимир Британишский – Младший брат
- Владимир Британишский – Меня благословил старик Бажов
- Владимир Британишский – Матери моей
- Владимир Британишский – Март солнечный
- Владимир Британишский – Мальчики, девочки, литстудийцы
- Владимир Британишский – Лохматую белую собаку
- Владимир Британишский – Лето 1845 года в Соколове
- Владимир Британишский – Ладожский канал
- Владимир Британишский – Кваренги
- Владимир Британишский – Куда ты уйдешь
- Владимир Британишский – Крылов и тверяки
- Владимир Британишский – Крик ворон
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.