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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Послание пролетарским поэтам
- Владимир Маяковский – Что делать
- Василий Жуковский – Библия
- Омар Хайям – Не таи в своем сердце обид и скорбей
- Robert Burns: Tam O’ Shanter: A Tale
- A Crimson Carpet by Pamela Griffiths
- Юнна Мориц – Бетани
- Наум Коржавин – Никакой истерики
- On Late Acquired Wealth (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- England! awake! awake! awake! by William Blake
- The Death of Knowledge by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- The Reef poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Interlude: Songs Out Of Sorrow by Sara Teasdale
- Ballade Of Sleep poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Нина Стожкова – Подарки деда Мороза
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 Fable by William Cowper
- A Comparison by William Cowper
- A Comparison. Addressed To A Young Lady by William Cowper
- A Child Of God Longing To See Him Beloved by William Cowper
- William Ellery Leonard – William Ellery Leonard
- Wayside Flowers by William Allingham
- These Little Songs by William Allingham
- The Touchstone by William Allingham
- The Little Dell by William Allingham
- The Fairies by William Allingham
- The Eviction by William Allingham
- The Boy by William Allingham
- Robin Redbreast by William Allingham
- Places and Men by William Allingham
- On a Forenoon of Spring by William Allingham
- Meadowsweet by William Allingham
- Lepracaun or Fairy Shoemaker, The by William Allingham
- Late Autumn by William Allingham
- William Allingham – William Allingham
- In Snow by William Allingham
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.