Orion

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

Far back when I went zig-zagging

through tamarack pastures

you were my genius, you

my cast-iron Viking, my helmed

lion-heart king in prison.

Years later now you’re young

my fierce half-brother, staring

down from that simplified west

your breast open, your belt dragged down

by an oldfashioned thing, a sword

the last bravado you won’t give over

though it weighs you down as you stride

and the stars in it are dim

and maybe have stopped burning.

But you burn, and I know it;

as I throw back my head to take you in

and old transfusion happens again:

divine astronomy is nothing to it.

Indoors I bruise and blunder

break faith, leave ill enough

alone, a dead child born in the dark.

Night cracks up over the chimney,

pieces of time, frozen geodes

come showering down in the grate.

A man reaches behind my eyes

and finds them empty

a woman’s head turns away

from my head in the mirror

children are dying my death

and eating crumbs of my life.

Pity is not your forte.

Calmly you ache up there

pinned aloft in your crow’s nest,

my speechless pirate!

You take it all for granted

and when I look you back

it’s with a starlike eye

shooting its cold and egotistical spear

where it can do least damage.

Breath deep! No hurt, no pardon

out here in the cold with you

you with your back to the wall.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random 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 

• Westward on the High-Hilled Plains poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Wake Not for the World-Heard Thunder poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Tis Time, I Think, By Wenlock Town poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Tis Time, I Think, By Wenlock Town poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Think No More, Lad poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• Think No More, Lad poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• There Pass the Careless People poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• There Pass the Careless People poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Winds Out of the West Land Blow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Winds Out of the West Land Blow poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Welsh Marches poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Welsh Marches poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The True Lover poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Street Sounds to the Soldiers’ Tread poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Stinging Nettle poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Stinging Nettle poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Recruit poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The Recruit poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The rainy Pleiads wester poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman
• The rainy Pleiads wester poem – A. E. Housman by Alfred Edward Houseman

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works