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the soothseekers have withdrawn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:
- Низами Гянджеви – О кипарис с плавной поступью мри
- Омар Хайям – Куда уйти от пламенных страстей
- Orlando Furioso Canto 18 by Ludovico Ariosto
- The Language of William Dunbar
- At The Abbey Theatre by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Вишневский – Тем, что в женщине разбудишь
- Taylor Swift
- Михаил Лермонтов – Валерик
- The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare
- From you have I been absent in the spring… (Sonnet 98) by William Shakespeare
- Under A Portrait Of Jukowsky poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Владимир Высоцкий – Неужто здесь сошёлся клином свет
- Константин Батюшков – На книгу под названием «Смесь»
- Jewels Should Sparkle Daily by Ronald G. Auguste
- A Poem to my Beloved by Walter William Safar
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
- Indian Wedding Customs – Eastern and Western Indian Wedding Traditions
- Latino Author and Educator Provides Tools for College and Life Success
- The Merchant of Copan [In English and Spanish]
- Knowing God Part 1 – Finding God, Knowing Him, and Doing His Works
- The Art of Cake Decorating – A Beginners Recommendation For Cake Decorating Books
- Creativity: The Top 10 Ways to Increase Your Creativity
- Learning to Study – Hindrances to Study
- Feeling Lucky to Be Irish
- Source of Life – Gives Hope in Adversity?
- The Importance of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
- Work in Game Design Rather Than Other Design
- 9 Types of Lovers – The Twisted Version
- May You Encounter Christ’s Inclusive Church
- Shaun White – The Power Behind the Snowboard Throne
- Ways to Make Money Online Easily for Free – 4 Important Tips to Make Money Online
- Stretch Mark Cream – How Creams Help Remove Stretch Marks
- How To Use Vellum For Your Card Making Ideas
- Neglecting the Word of God: A Foundational Cause of Lukewarmness
- Celebrity Style Of The Week: Gabriel Akinosho
- The Dying of America and How to Save Her
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.