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 War Films by Sir Henry Newbolt by Poetry In English
• The Black Hawk War of the Artists by Vachel Lindsay by Poetry In English
• Repression of War Experience by Siegfried Sassoon by Poetry In English
• Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries by A. E. Housman by Poetry In English
• CIA Dope Calypso by Allen Ginsberg by Poetry In English
• A Day on the Beach of War by Tony Stringfellow by Poetry In English
• The Paint-Kings by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• Rosalie by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• On The Luxembourg Gallery by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• Eccentricity by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• Art by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• America To Great Britain by Washington Allston by Poetry In English
• Year’s End by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Upstairs Room by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Smiles Of The Bathers by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Furies by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Doctor Will Return by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Bell From Europe by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• The Beach by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees
• Round by Weldon Kees by Weldon Kees

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