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:
- Алексей Толстой – Рука Алкида тяжела
- The Song of Seven Cities by Rudyard Kipling
- Ирина Гурина – Как пчёлы чуть не поссорились
- Олег Григорьев – Драка
- Auld Maitland poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Анатолий Жигулин – Из больничной тетради
- Наум Коржавин – Мне без тебя так трудно жить
- If you love the life by Vinko Kalinić
- Allegro Maestoso by William Ernest Henley
- In the New Garden in all the Parts. by Walt Whitman
- A Winter Twilight poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
- Tiny Warrior by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
- Валерий Брюсов – Есть что-то позорное в мощи природы
- Sonnet 12
- Otho The Great – Act II poem – John Keats poems
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
- A Song by Thomas Carew
- A prayer to the Wind by Thomas Carew
- A Divine Mistress by Thomas Carew
- A Cruel Mistress. by Thomas Carew
- Specula by Thomas Edward Brown
- Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown
- Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown
- Pain by Thomas Edward Brown
- Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
- My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
- Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown
- Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown
- If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown
- Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown
- I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown
- Dora by Thomas Edward Brown
- Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown
- Time of Roses by Thomas Hood
- Tim Turpin by Thomas Hood
- The World is with Me by Thomas Hood
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.