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.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Маяковский – Вопль кустаря
- Вера Павлова – Память, дырявый мешок
- A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton by Robert Burns
- Eclogue:–The ‘Lotments by William Barnes
- To Elizabeth Ward Perkins poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
- Alone by Yvor Winters
- Psalm 80 poem – John Milton poems
- Robert Burns: How Cruel Are The Parents: Altered from an old English song. tune-“John Anderson, my jo.”
- angel_of_christmas_love_shining_bright.html
- LET Go.. by Renu Ayyar
- Алексей Жемчужников – Зимнее чувство
- Юрий Коринец – Отцовская песня
- Farewell to the Court by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Gulliver by Sylvia Plath
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
- happiness.html
- At the Zoo poem – A. A. Milne poem
- Vestiges poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- The Flash Reverses Time poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Que Sera Sera poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Old Boy poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- Einstein Defining Special Relativity poem – A. Van Jordan poems
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Poetry Monster
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Best Poems
- In Memoriam
- Taylor Swift
- Wisdom in Love by Lutfi Abdallah a.k.a Laso
- Why I Do Not Miss You! by Praveen Parasar
- Weaving waves by Shailendra Singh
- Trademark by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- Time Well-Served by Luis Estable
- This I Beg To Have by Luis Estable
- The True Lover by A. E. Housman
- The Song of My Heart by Olawuyi Mutiu
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.