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:
- Snake eggs by Victor A. Bueno M.
- Mother by Shahida Latif
- Drum-Taps. by Walt Whitman
- Нина Воронель – Поэты военных лет
- Sonnet 63: Against my love shall be, as I am now by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: Inscription To Miss Jessy Lewars: On a copy of the Scots Musical Museum, in four volumes, presented to her by Burns.
- Lapis Lazuli by William Butler Yeats
- Mohay Apnay Hi Rung Mein poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- At Shelley’s House At Lerici poem – Alfred Austin
- At Long Last
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Николай Карамзин – Истина
- Владимир Костров – Старый сюжет
- Moonrise poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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
- Николай Некрасов – Детство
- Николай Некрасов – Деревенские новости
- Николай Некрасов – Демону
- Николай Карамзин – Триолет Алете в тот день, как ей исполнилось 14 лет
- Николай Карамзин – Там всё велико, всё прелестно
- Николай Карамзин – Тацит
- Николай Карамзин – Странные люди
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи с поднесением выписок
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на слова, заданные мне Хлoeю: миг, картина и дверь
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи на день рождения А. А. Плещеевой 14 октября
- Николай Карамзин – Стихи к портрету И.И. Дмитриева (Министр, поэт и друг)
- Николай Карамзин – Соловей, галки и вороны
- Николай Карамзин – Соломонова мудрость, или мысли, выбранные из Экклезиаста
- Николай Карамзин – Сильфида
- Николай Карамзин – Рогатому человеку
- Николай Карамзин – Раиса (Древняя баллада)
- Николай Карамзин – Прости
- Николай Карамзин – Пророчество на 1799 год, найденное в бумагах Нострадамуса
- Николай Карамзин – Приношение грациям
- Николай Карамзин – Посвящение к «Аглае»
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.