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:
- Yankee Doodle by Vachel Lindsay
- Mountain Wellhead
- At Sea
- Владимир Луговской – Ночной патруль
- Sonnet # 4 by Luis A. Estable
- Loneliness is a prison by Vladimir Marku
- The Letter poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- I am a sculptor, a molder of form by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Faithless Nelly Gray by Thomas Hood
- 1991-I by Wendell Berry
- Низами Гянджеви – Я бросил молодость в пожар моей любви
- Robert Burns: Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie, The Author’s Only Pet Yowe., The. An Unco Mournfu’ Tale:
- Николай Гумилев – Леопарди (Набросок)
- Verses On A Young Lady (playing harpsichord, and singing) by Tobias Smollett
- Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath
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
- Sonet 42 by William Alexander
- Sonet 41 by William Alexander
- Sonet 4 by William Alexander
- Sonet 39 by William Alexander
- Sonet 38 by William Alexander
- Sonet 36 by William Alexander
- Sonet 35 by William Alexander
- Sonet 34 by William Alexander
- Sonet 33 by William Alexander
- Sonet 32 by William Alexander
- Jonathan: The First Booke by William Alexander
- IX: Some Verses: This Day Design’d To Spoil The World of Peace by William Alexander
- IV: Some Verses: To The Author by William Alexander
- III: Some Verses: To M. Michaell Drayton by William Alexander
- Elegie IV: On The Death of Prince Henrie by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Twelfth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Third Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Tenth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Sixth Houre by William Alexander
- Doomes-Day: The Ninth Houre by William Alexander
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.