The light so thick nothing’s visible, cognoscenti
I knew them, stupid apes. Real apes know more
Before we said apes. I know how to be you bet-
ter?—?a stupid voice. You must find a mind
to respect?—?why? There was someone with ear
buds, speaking gibberish who wouldn’t
stop walking beside me; freckle-spattered. I
had to ask the métro attendant for help;
she extricated him from me … I respect his chaotic
speech, mild adhesive force because it makes no sense.
I am back on the alley, discovering adults are un-
trustworthy: someone’s lying … about a
fight between a teenage girl and boy?—?he pushed
her hard?—?first she badly scratched him, she’s worse, his
mother says. I’m back at pre-beginning, I don’t
want to go through that again. There is no
sexuality in chaos, there’s no style, nor
hope. I want style?—?apes have style, people
have machines. Show me something to respect
This bleuet growing out of a wall on rue d’Hauteville.
I picked it and pressed it in a diary. Every once
in a while I respect a moment. I am back at
pre-beginning: I don’t want to care beyond
this … sudden hue in the sand, yellow or spotted with an
hallucinated iridescence. The one who is
stalking me … there has often been someone stalk-
ing me. My destiny. He’s gone, stay here
in this, I can’t be harmed if I’m the only one who’s
thought of being here. Aren’t you lonely? I don’t know.
Copyright ©:
Alice Notley

A few random poems:
- The Flight by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Степанов – Мышь и кошка
- Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton
- Николай Тихонов – Баллада о гвоздях
- The Beach by Weldon Kees
- Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 1 by Robert Burns
- Sonnet CXX by William Shakespeare
- Яков Полонский – Н. А. Грибоедова
- Eavesdropper by Sylvia Plath
- Sonet 51 by William Alexander
- Кондратий Рылеев – Палей
- The Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Dirge of the Three Queens by William Shakespeare
- Vorticism Is A Choka In Its Modular Home
- Владимир Маяковский – Первый вывоз
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
- Hope And Riders
- Do I
- Communal War
- Blank Dreams
- Before
- Again
- A Voice
- A Toast To Nations
- What Of The Night
- Vows
- To Morrow
- The Winged Mariners
- The Watchman
- The Virgin Martyr
- The Vain Question
- The Soldiers Grave
- The Silence In The Church
- The Season
- The Resting Place
- The Old Manor House
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