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: To John Kennedy, Dumfries House:
- “The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy
- The Lilac by William Barnes
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мы бдительны, мы тайн не разболтаем
- Holding On by Satish Verma
- Composed After A Journey Across The Hambleton Hills, Yorkshire by William Wordsworth
- Олег Бундур – И до моря 15 шагов
- Sonnet: To Time by Sylvia Plath
- By Callimachus by William Cowper
- My Country Place by Thomas J Camp
- Владимир Маяковский – Забудем солдатчину!.. (РОСТА №425)
- La Nue
- Владимир Маяковский – Совет Труда и Обороны сделал ассигнование миллионное… ( Главполитпросвет №64)
- Николай Заболоцкий – Приглашение на пир
- Gammony Gaÿ by William Barnes
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
- Юнна Мориц – Зейдер-Зее
- Юнна Мориц – За невлюбленными людьми
- Юнна Мориц – Ёжик резиновый
- Юнна Мориц – Хорошо быть молодым
- Юнна Мориц – Вместо сноски
- Юнна Мориц – Веселый завтрак
- Юнна Мориц – Вечерний свет
- Юнна Мориц – В серебряном столбе
- Юнна Мориц – В цирке
- Юнна Мориц – Трудно светиться и петь не легко
- Юнна Мориц – Свежий бублик
- Юнна Мориц – Страна вагонная, вагонное терпенье
- Юнна Мориц – Собственное небо
- Юнна Мориц – Снег в ноябре
- Юнна Мориц – Смелый гусь
- Юнна Мориц – Сказка про песенку
- Юнна Мориц – Ручеек
- Юнна Мориц – Разноцветные котята
- Юнна Мориц – Приход вдохновения
- Юнна Мориц – Попрыгать-поиграть
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.