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:
- Only Thee by Rabindranath Tagore
- Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
- Ballad Of The Skeletons poem – Allen Ginsberg
- simple_heart.html
- The Callous Statues by Shahida Latif
- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
- Arrow through the bellybutton poem
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой, товарищ! Стонет Поволжье, о помощи моля (Главполитпросвет №344)
- Sappho Redivivus: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- A Study by Wang Wei
- Invitation
- Иннокентий Анненский – Леконт де Лиль. Из стихотворения «Призраки»
- everything is a lie by tulip
- Last Words by Philip Levine
- DOWNHILL JOURNEY by Satish Verma
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
- Halo by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Grey eyed Goddess by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Everything ends by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Damned by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Compromising my ego by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Both ways I lose by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Blue flower by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Blue eyes by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Be there for me by Tanisha Avarsekar
- An ode to you by Tanisha Avarsekar
- What time are we living in by T. Wignesan
- Villanelle: Oscar Victorius by T. Wignesan
- To the author(s) of Manimekalai by T. Wignesan
- To Don Quixote, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s A Don Quichotte by T. Wignesan.
- To a woman, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: A une femme by T. Wignesan.
- To a person, they say, frigid, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: A celle que l’on fit froide by T. Wignesan
- The Virgin Maid of Orleans, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: La Pucelle by T. Wignesan.
- The Evening Soup, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: La Soupe du soir by T. Wignesan
- Prison Souvenirs, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan.
- Prayer, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem: Prière by T. Wignesan.
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.