A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
Thinking of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848),
astronomer, sister of William; and others.
A woman in the shape of a monster
a monster in the shape of a woman
the skies are full of them
a woman ‘in the snow
among the Clocks and instruments
or measuring the ground with poles’
in her 98 years to discover
8 comets
She whom the moon ruled
like us
levitating into the night sky
riding the polished lenses
Galaxies of women, there
doing penance for impetuousness
ribs chilled
in those spaces of the mind
An eye,
‘virile, precise and absolutely certain’
from the mad webs of Uranusborg
encountering the NOVA
every impulse of light exploding
from the core
as life flies out of us
Tycho whispering at last
‘Let me not seem to have lived in vain’
What we see, we see
and seeing is changing
the light that shrivels a mountain
and leaves a man alive
Heartbeat of the pulsar
heart sweating through my body
The radio impulse
pouring in from Taurus
I am bombarded yet I stand
I have been standing all my life in the
direct path of a battery of signals
the most accurately transmitted most
untranslatable language in the universe
I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo-
luted that a light wave could take 15
years to travel through me And has
taken I am an instrument in the shape
of a woman trying to translate pulsations
into images for the relief of the body
and the reconstruction of the mind.
A few random poems:
- Marks Of Disrespect by Graham Rowlands
- Claïs by Sappho
- Olney Hymn 7: Vanity of the World by William Cowper
- The Invention of Honey by Ricardo Sternberg
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 58. Farewell! – But Whenever You Welcome the Hour. Томас Мур.
- Conjugal by Russell Edson
- Владимир Высоцкий – Все ушли на фронт
- Алексей Толстой – Темнота и туман застилают мне путь
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Переселение
- To His Worthy Friend Doctor Witty Upon His Translation Of The Popular Errors poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Star by Sara Teasdale
- If Only by Mary Etta Metcalf
- I know our friendship wil never end by Miraj Patel
- The Treasure by Sara Teasdale
- Ольга Берггольц – В доме Павлова
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
- To Mrs. M. B. On Her Birthday poem – Alexander Pope
- Macer : A Character poem – Alexander Pope
- Lines Written in Windsor Forest poem – Alexander Pope
- Inscription on a Grotto, the Work of Nine Ladies. poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of Spenser : The Alley poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of E. of Rochester : On Silence poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of E. of Dorset : Artemisia poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of Dr. Swift : The Happy Life of a Country Parson poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- In Imitation of Chaucer poem – Alexander Pope
- Farewell to London poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistle To Mrs Teresa Blount.[On Her Leaving The Town After The Coronation] poem – Alexander Pope
- Epistle To Mrs Teresa Blount.[On Her Leaving The Town After The Coronation] poem – Alexander Pope
- Chorus of Youths and Virgins poem – Alexander Pope
- Chorus of Athenians poem – Alexander Pope
- Autumn – The Third Pastoral, or Hylas and Ægon poem – Alexander Pope
- To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope
- An Essay on Man: Epistle II poem – Alexander Pope
- You Know Where You Did Despise poem – Alexander Pope
- Universal Prayer poem – Alexander Pope
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.