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:
- Conversation Galante by T. S. Eliot
- Николай Гумилев – На берегу моря
- Jeane’s Wedden Day In Mornen by William Barnes
- Reconciliation by Siegfried Sassoon
- Robert Burns: Holy Willie’s Prayer: “And send the godly in a pet to pray.” – Pope.
- On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper
- Remembering An Account Executive
- Sonnet X
- Momma Welfare Roll by Maya Angelou
- Sonnet 53: What is your substance, whereof are you made by William Shakespeare
- The Beggar’s Valentine by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Высоцкий – Я всё чаще думаю о судьях
- Robert Burns: The Highland Balou:
- Юрий Коринец – Дедовский подарок
- Li Po, the moon and me by Raj Arumugam
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 Гербель – В дорогу
- Николай Гербель – Ура, объявлена война
- Николай Гербель – Салютовка
- Николай Гербель – Простор
- Николай Гербель – Песнь лейб-гвардии уланского полка
- Николай Гербель – На смерть воробья
- Николай Гербель – Меня преследует какой-то демон злой
- Николай Гербель – Изюмцам
- Николай Гербель – Бокал
- Наум Коржавин – Поэзия не страсть, а власть
- Наум Коржавин – Подмосковная платформа в апреле
- Наум Коржавин – Песня лейб-казачьей сотни
- Наум Коржавин – Перевал
- Наум Коржавин – Памяти Герцена или Баллада об историческом недосыпе
- Наум Коржавин – От судьбы никуда не уйти
- Наум Коржавин – От дурачеств, от ума ли
- Наум Коржавин – Осень в Караганде
- Наум Коржавин – Он собирался многое свершить
- Наум Коржавин – О Господи! Как я хочу умереть
- Наум Коржавин – Никакой истерики
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.