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:
- Николай Языков – Я. П. Полонскому (Благодарю тебя за твой подарок милой…)
- IN VINCULUM by PEGGY AYLSWORTH
- A World So Different by Mary Etta Metcalf
- haiku
- He is more than a hero by Sappho
- Sea God and the wind rose by Vinko Kalinić
- Psalm 08 poem – John Milton poems
- The Revenge; A Ballad of the Fleet poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sonet 51 by William Alexander
- You’re The Only One poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- hai_kou.html
- O Tell Me The Truth About Love by W H Auden
- Poet’s Corner poem – Alfred Austin
- Song—A Lass wi’ a Tocher by Robert Burns
- Михаил Кузмин – Выздоравливающей
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
- Bubbles from Eternity by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Black magic by Mrunmayi Mandan
- Back I Go to My Prison by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen
- Appease by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- St. Roach by Muriel Rukeyser
- The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser
- Whoever Comes From The Earth by Nelly Sachs
- Utopia by Ndue Ukaj
- Tumult by Nicole M Nugent
- Tip tap RAIN by Neelam Sinha
- The Waist of Time by The Waist of Time
- The Shadow of Crows by Ndue Ukaj
- The Red Earth of Kupungarri by Nicole M Nugent
- The man with the blue eye by Neelam Shah
- The Freedom Of Poetry by Ndue Ukaj
- The Emigrant by Ndue Ukaj
- The blanket is same always by Neelam Sinha
- Superficially by Ndue Ukaj
- Sonnet (XII) : O Buddha ! I do wish to follow your golden middle path by Neelam Sinha
- Sonnet (XI) : I know me and I do believe in the causation by Neelam Sinha
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.