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:
- Юрий Верховский – Как раненый олень кидается в поток
- A Kiss by Thomas Lux
- Robert Burns: Farewell Song To The Banks Of Ayr: “I composed this song as I conveyed my chest so far on my road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica. I meant it as my farewell dirge to my native land.”-R. B.
- Sleep of the Body the Soul’s Awakening by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: Reply To A Trimming Epistle Received From A Tailor:
- Teddy Bear
- Robert Burns: Complimentary Epigram On Maria Riddell:
- A Message from my Lodge at Wangchuan to Pei Di by Wang Wei
- Eclogue:–Racketèn Joe by William Barnes
- Southern Song by Margaret Walker
- From Menander by William Cowper
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Переход
- Robert Burns: Extempore Reply To An Invitation:
- An Honest Poet’s Life Is Full Of Care by Malcolm Massiah
- Field Sports by William Somervile
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
- Федор Тютчев – Как верно здравый смысл народа
- Федор Тютчев – Как птичка, раннею зарей
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
- Федор Тютчев – Как ни тяжел последний час
- Федор Тютчев – Как ни бесилося злоречье
- Федор Тютчев – Как неожиданно и ярко
- Федор Тютчев – Как нас ни угнетай разлука
- Федор Тютчев – Как летней иногда порою
- Федор Тютчев – Как дымный столп светлеет в вышине
- Федор Тютчев – Как бестолковы числа эти
- Федор Тютчев – К портрету государственного канцлера, князя А.М. Горчакова
- Федор Тютчев – К Нисе
- Федор Тютчев – К Н.
- Федор Тютчев – Анненковой (D’une fille du Nord, chetive et languissante)
- Федор Тютчев – А. Н. М.
- Федор Тютчев – А.А. Фету (Тебе сердечный мой поклон)
- Федор Тютчев – 23 Fevrier 1861
- Федор Сваровский – Слава стране моей
- Федор Сваровский – Речь на юбилее
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени. свидетель зиндийского удара
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.