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:
- Psalm 81 poem – John Milton poems
- The Azure Sea of an alien tongue
- phantasm.html
- Mother, Among The Dustbins by Stevie Smith
- The Pet-Lamb by William Wordsworth
- Source of Life – Gives Hope in Adversity?
- Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell
- Heaven and You by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- The Emigrant
- Алексей Жемчужников – Я музыкальным чувством обладаю
- Felix Randal poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Заключительная песня Кэрролла
- The Passing Of The Primroses poem – Alfred Austin
- Sonnet CVI by William Shakespeare
- The Gardener XXIV: Do Not Keep to Yourself by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Sunflowers by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Morning by Mark R Slaughter
- Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Mending Socks by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Some Say by Mark Miller
- So You Say by Mark Strand
- Manure by Mark R Slaughter
- Slag by Mark Base
- Mammary Tunes by Mark R Slaughter
- She and Drugs by Mark R Slaughter
- Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Lines For Winter by Mark Strand
- Life, wait for me by Martin Zakovski
- Question mark remarks by Mark Miller
- Life by Marvin Bell
- Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry
- My Father’s Hats by Mark Irwin
- Let Him Free by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
- Please Don’t Judas Me by Mark Miller
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.