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:
- The End by Sharon Olds
- The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
- An Indian Love Song by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Степанов – Акробат (Буква А)
- Яков Полонский – Блажен озлобленный поэт
- Юнна Мориц – Это вьюги хрустящий калач
- Inscription to Chloris by Robert Burns
- The Family Monkey by Russell Edson
- Владимир Британишский – Отечественные записки 1840-х годов
- The Regret Of The Ranee In The Hall Of Peacocks
- Admonition by William Wordsworth
- In Uncertainty To A Lady poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Unlike, For Example, The Sound Of A Riptooth Saw by Thomas Lux
- Wayside Flowers by William Allingham
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 Methodist by Thomas Chatterton
- The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton
- The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton
- The Advice by Thomas Chatterton
- Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton
- Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton
- Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton
- Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton
- February by Thomas Chatterton
- Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton
- Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton
- An Excelente Balade of Charitie: As Wroten bie the Gode Pri by Thomas Chatterton
- A New Song by Thomas Chatterton
- A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton
- The Spring by Thomas Carew
- The Primrose by Thomas Carew
- Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew
- Song. Mediocrity in love rejected. by Thomas Carew
- Song. Good Counsel to a Young Maid by Thomas Carew
- Song: Eternity of Love Protested by Thomas Carew
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.