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 Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XII. Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth
- A Tribute to Henry M. Stanley by William Topaz McGonagall
- Николай Карамзин – К самому себе
- Владимир Маяковский – Пахали сохой — запашем трактором (Главполитпросвет №42)
- Robert Burns: Composed In Spring:
- The Sacred Tree
- The Way by Robert Creeley
- At First. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier
- Вера Звягинцева – Моя любовь к Армении похожа
- Commemoration of Rodney’s Victory by Robert Burns
- Владимир Маяковский – Чем отличается Красная Армия от царской?.. (РОСТА №559)
- Sketch—New Year’s Day, 1790 by Robert Burns
- Best Friend by Nicole M Nugent
- Ольга Берггольц – Мне не поведать о моей утрате
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
- Юлиан Анисимов – Круглогодие
- Юлиан Анисимов – Камнем сгрудилась комната
- Юлиан Анисимов – Из Рильке
- Ярослав Смеляков – Земляника
- Ярослав Смеляков – Здравствуй, Пушкин
- Ярослав Смеляков – Я отюдова уйду
- Ярослав Смеляков – Хорошая девочка Лида
- Ярослав Смеляков – Вот опять ты мне вспомнилась, мама
- Ярослав Смеляков – В защиту домино
- Ярослав Смеляков – Три витязя
- Ярослав Смеляков – Стихи, написанные в псковской гостинице
- Ярослав Смеляков – Стихи, написанные на почте
- Ярослав Смеляков – Шинель
- Ярослав Смеляков – Русский язык
- Юлия Друнина – Геологиня
- Юлия Друнина – Есть время любить
- Юлия Друнина – Есть праздники, что навсегда с тобой
- Юлия Друнина – Елка
- Юлия Друнина – Два вечера
- Юлия Друнина – Другу
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.