A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
A life hauls itself uphill
through hoar-mist steaming
the sun’s tongue licking
leaf upon leaf into stricken liquid
When? When? cry the soothseekers
but time is a bloodshot eye
seeing its last of beauty its own
foreclosure
a bloodshot mind
finding itself unspeakable
What is the last thought?
Now I will let you know?
or, Now I know?
(porridge of skull-splinters, brain tissue
mouth and throat membrane, cranial fluid)
Shattered head on the breast
of a wooded hill
Laid down there endlessly so
tendrils soaked into matted compose
became a root
torqued over the faint springhead
groin whence illegible
matter leaches: worm-borings, spurts of silt
volumes of sporic changes
hair long blown into far follicles
blasted into a chosen place
Revenge on the head (genitals, breast, untouched)
revenge on the mouth
packed with its inarticulate confessions
revenge on the eyes
green-gray and restless
revenge on the big and searching lips
the tender tongue
revenge on the sensual, on the nose the
carrier of history
revenge on the life devoured
in another incineration
You can walk by such a place, the earth is
made of them
where the stretched tissue of a field or woods
is humid
with beloved matter
the soothseekers have withdrawn
you feel no ghost, only a sporic chorus
when that place utters its worn sigh
let us have peace
And the shattered head answers back
And I believed I was loved, I believed I loved
Who did this to us?
A few random poems:
- 10 Valentine’s Day Scrapbooking Ideas With or Without Photos
- Two Songs From A Play by William Butler Yeats
- The First Part: Sonnet 1 – In my first years, and prime yet not at height by William Drummond
- Why do ye torture me? by Patrick Pearse
- Exmoor poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Lonely Poets by Ndue Ukaj
- The First Jasmines by Rabindranath Tagore
- On Messrs Hussey and Coffin by Phillis Wheatley
- Prometheus Amid Hurricane And Earthquake
- At Sea
- The Memorial poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Forgotten Promises by Rixa White
- Know, Celia, Since Thou Art So Proud by Thomas Carew
- Among the Rocks by Robert Browning
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская пани
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
- The Carter by William Barnes
- The Bwoat by William Barnes
- The Brook That Ran By Gramfer’s by William Barnes
- The Bells Ov Alderburnham by William Barnes
- The Bean Vield by William Barnes
- The Beam In Grenley Church by William Barnes
- The Beäten Path by William Barnes
- The Bachelor by William Barnes
- Thatchen O’ The Rick by William Barnes
- Teaken In Apples by William Barnes
- Sweet Music In The Wind by William Barnes
- Sound O’ Water by William Barnes
- A Snowy Night by William Barnes
- Slow To Come, Quick Agone by William Barnes
- Sleep Did Come Wi’ The Dew by William Barnes
- Shrodon Feäir by William Barnes
- Shaftesbury Feäir by William Barnes
- Ruth A-Ridèn by William Barnes
- Rivers Don’t Gi’e Out by William Barnes
- Riden Hwome At Night by William Barnes
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.