Prison Song

A poem by Alan Dugan

The skin ripples over my body like moon-wooed water,

rearing to escape me. Where could it find another

animal as naked as the one it hates to cover?

Once it told me what was happening outside,

who was attacking, who caressing, and what the air

was doing to feed or freeze me. Now I wake up

dark at night, in a textureless ocean of ignorance,

or fruit bites back and water bruises like a stone.

It’s jealousy, because I look for other tools to know

with, and other armor, better girded to my wish.

So let it lie, turn off the clues or try to leave:

sewn on me seamless like those painful shirts

the body-hating saints wore, the sheath of hell

is pierced to my darkness nonetheless: what traitors

labor in my face, what hints they smuggle through

its arching guard! But even in the night it jails,

with nothing but its lies and silences to feed upon,

the jail itself can make a scenery, sing prison songs,

and set off fireworks to praise a homemade day.

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Poems in English 

• Imitated From The Japanese by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• I Am Of Ireland by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Hound Voice by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• His Phoenix by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• His Dream by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• His Confidence by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• His Bargain by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• High Talk by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Her Vision In The Wood by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Her Triumph by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Her Praise by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Her Dream by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• Her Anxiety by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• He Thinks Of Those Who Have Spoken Evil Of His Beloved by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• He Tells Of A Valley Full Of Lovers by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Cat And The Moon by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats
• The Cap And Bells by William Butler Yeats by William Butler Yeats

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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