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:
- Barmaid by William Ernest Henley
- On The Death Of J. C. An Infant by Phillis Wheatley
- No, Love Is Not Dead by Robert Desnos
- Федор Сологуб – Светлый пир
- Monologue Of A Commercial Fisherman
- Алексей Жемчужников – Знакомая картина
- Through Liberty To Light poem – Alfred Austin
- Second Epistle to J. Lapraik by Robert Burns
- Hast Never Come to Thee an Hour. by Walt Whitman
- Anti-Thelyphthora. A Tale In Verse by William Cowper
- To My Lord Fairfax poem – John Milton poems
- Free the Holy Land — a poem about Palestine
- Николай Глазков – Чингисхан, Батый, Аттила
- Day That I Have Loved by Rupert Brooke
- Robert Burns: A Lass Wi’ A Tocher:
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
- The Illusion of Love by Sarojini Naidu
- The Bangle Sellers by Sarojini Naidu
- The Snake Charmer by Sarojini Naidu
- The Queen’s Rival by Sarojini Naidu
- In The Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- Wandering Singers by Sarojini Naidu
- Village Song by Sarojini Naidu
- Transcience by Sarojini Naidu
- Suttee by Sarojini Naidu
- Street Cries by Sarojini Naidu
- Song Of A Dream by Sarojini Naidu
- Past and Future by Sarojini Naidu
- Palanquin Bearers by Sarojini Naidu
- Ode to H.H. The Nizam Of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- Nightfall In The City Of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- My Dead Dream by Sarojini Naidu
- Life by Sarojini Naidu
- Leili by Sarojini Naidu
- Indian Weavers by Sarojini Naidu
- Indian Love Song by Sarojini Naidu
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.