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 Song Of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Song Of The Old Mother by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Shadowy Waters: The Harp of Aengus by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Seven Sages by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Secret Rose by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Scholars by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Saint And The Hunchback by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Sad Shepherd by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Rose Tree by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Rose Of The World by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Rose Of Peace by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Rose Of Battle by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Results Of Thought by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Realists by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Pity Of Love by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Pilgrim by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Phases Of The Moon by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The People by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats

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