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:
- Leszko The Bastard poem – Alfred Austin
- Crazy Jane On The Day Of Judgment by William Butler Yeats
- Here, Sailor. by Walt Whitman
- In Imitation of Dr. Swift : The Happy Life of a Country Parson poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Song—A Man’s a Man for a’ that by Robert Burns
- Les Roses de Sâdi poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Геннадий Айги – Дом в поле
- Владимир Британишский – Тропа виляла
- Юнна Мориц – Астры
- Владимир Маяковский – Заря Коммуны разгорается туго… (РОСТА №856)
- Омар Хайям – Дай мне влаги хмельной, укрепляющей дух
- Think No More, Lad poem – A. E. Housman
- David Cleek by Siegfried Sassoon
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о погибшем лётчике
- The Rival 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
- Владимир Агатов – Бессмертный Ленинград
- Влад Амелин – Приумножай добро
- Витя, Витенка, Витюша
- Витамины
- Виталий Тунников – Заюшкина избушка
- Виталий Тунников – Бумеранг
- Виталий Сивяков – Крещенье
- Виталий Ревякин – Самарский край
- Виталий Кодрян – 31 августа
- Виталий Бакалдин – Я не рос среди берез
- Виолетта Бережная – Много у меня друзей
- Виктор Шамонин-Версенев – Заяц-врун
- Виктор Шамонин-Версенев – Волк-дурень
- Виктор Шамонин-Версенев – Весёлый воробей
- Виктор Шамонин-Версенев – Дед-разиня, хитрая лиса и глупый волк
- Виктор Павлов – Милосердие в моем понимании
- Виктор Кудлачев – Весна
- Виктор Колесников – Вороний мат во все концы
- Виктор Кирюшин – Небеса набухшей парусиною
- Виктор Калитин – Фиалка
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.