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:
- Вера Звягинцева – Карусель
- fruit_leaf_roots_flowers.html
- Гавриил Державин – Песенка
- Elegiac Stanzas Suggested By A Picture Of Peele Castle by William Wordsworth
- My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth
- Full of Life, Now. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Address To The Unco Guid, Or The Rigidly Righteous:
- A Way to Love God by Robert Penn Warren
- Владимир Высоцкий – Михаилу Шемякину под впечатлением от серии “Чрево”
- sea.html
- Robert Burns: I’m O’er Young To Marry Yet:
- The Dunciad: Book IV poem – Alexander Pope
- Robert Burns: Lines Written In Friars’-Carse Hermitage:
- The Beggar’s Valentine by Vachel Lindsay
- Sir Giles’ War-Song by William Morris
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
- The Unpromised Land, Montgomery, Alabama poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sounds of your love poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sexual eyes poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Satisfaction of my eyes poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Praying Drunk poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
- Medicine to my brain poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
- In The Well poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
- Hawk poem – Andrew Demcak poems | Poems and Poetry
- French kiss to knickers poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Beachy Blues poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
- Words You Said poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Winter Twilight poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
- When The Green Lies Over The Earth poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
- Universe poem – Aminu Ola Rasaq poems | Poems and Poetry
- Trees poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
- There is but there is not poem – Amy Haritha Suseel poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Voice poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
- THE ROAD OF ANGEL poem – kapardeli eftichia poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Nautical Why poem – Amy Nawrocki poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Final Poem poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
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.