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.

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Poems in English 

• The Garden by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• O fortunatus nimium, etc., a translation out of Virgil by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• The Essay on Agriculture by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• The Death Of A Fly by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Changeling by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Breast by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Autopsy by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Alfresco Moment by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• A Performance At Hog Theater by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Erasing Amyloo by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• On The Eating Of Mice by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Closet by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Soup Song by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• The Bridge by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Mr. Brain by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• One Lonely Afternoon by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Ape And Coffee by Russell Edson by Russel Edson
• Accidents by Russell Edson by Russel Edson

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