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 

• Doomes-Day: The Fourth Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Doomes-Day: The First Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Doomes-Day: The Fifth Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Doomes-Day: The Eleventh Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Doomes-Day: The Eighth Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Doomes-Day: The Second Houre by William Alexander by William Alexander
• An Eccho by William Alexander by William Alexander
• A Short View Of: The State Of Man by William Alexander by William Alexander
• A Parænesis To Prince Henry by William Alexander by William Alexander
• Written In A Quarrel by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Written In A Fit Of Illness. R. S. S. by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Written After Leaving Her At New Burns by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Watching Unto God In The Night Season by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Watching Unto God In The Night Season (3) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Watching Unto God In The Night Season (2) by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Verses Written At Bath, On Finding The Heel Of A Shoe by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Verses Printed By Himself On A Flood At Olney by William Cowper by William Cowper
• To The Rev. Mr. Newton, On His Return From Ramsgate by William Cowper by William Cowper
• To The Rev. Mr. Newton : An Invitation Into The Country by William Cowper by William Cowper
• To Mary by William Cowper by William Cowper

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