Quickstep
by A. S. J. Tessimond
Acknowledge the drum’s whisper.
Yield to its velvet
Nudge. Cut a slow air-
Curve. Then dip (hip to hip):
Sway, swing, pedantically
Poise. Now recover,
Converting the coda
To prelude of sway-swing-
Recover.
Acknowledge
The drum-crack’s alacrity;
Acrid exactitude –
Catch it, then slacken,
Then catch as cat catches
Rat. Trace your graph:
Loop, ellipse. Skirt an air-wall
To bend it and break it –
Thus; so;
As the drum speaks!

A few random poems:
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
- The Fishermen, The Gulls & The Bible People by Michael Estabrook
- Омар Хайям – Нищим дервишем ставши
- These Green-Going-to-Yellow by Marvin Bell
- After Years by Ted Kooser
- Олег Григорьев – Дети кидали друг в друга поленья
- Others, I Am Not the First poem – A. E. Housman
- Since We Must Die poem – Alfred Austin
- Commemoration of Rodney’s Victory by Robert Burns
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Анатолий Жигулин – Гулко эхо от ранних шагов
- Олег Чупров – Тают в сумраке лица
- Ольга Седакова – Прощание
- Spider by Sylvia Plath
- Cascade by Robert Desnos
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
- Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm by Rudyard Kipling
- Beast and Man in India by Rudyard Kipling
- As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling
- Army Headquarters by Rudyard Kipling
- Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling
- Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An Old Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling
- An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An American by Rudyard Kipling
- A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Tree Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Three-Part Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of Kabir by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song In Storm by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling
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