I said I will find what is lowly
and put the roots of my identity
down there:
each day I’ll wake up
and find the lowly nearby,
a handy focus and reminder,
a ready measure of my significance,
the voice by which I would be heard,
the wills, the kinds of selfishness
I could
freely adopt as my own:
but though I have looked everywhere,
I can find nothing
to give myself to:
everything is
magnificent with existence, is in
surfeit of glory:
nothing is diminished,
nothing has been diminished for me:
I said what is more lowly than the grass:
ah, underneath,
a ground-crust of dry-burnt moss:
I looked at it closely
and said this can be my habitat: but
nestling in I
found
below the brown exterior
green mechanisms beyond the intellect
awaiting resurrection in rain: so I got up
and ran saying there is nothing lowly in the universe:
I found a beggar:
he had stumps for legs: nobody was paying
him any attention: everybody went on by:
I nestled in and found his life:
there, love shook his body like a devastation:
I said
though I have looked everywhere
I can find nothing lowly
in the universe:
I whirled though transfigurations up and down,
transfigurations of size and shape and place:
at one sudden point came still,
stood in wonder:
moss, beggar, weed, tick, pine, self, magnificent
with being!
A few random poems:
- Conversation 4: On Place by Rosmarie Waldrop
- Алексей Плещеев – Лучше гибель без возврата
- Tumi Sandhyar Meghamala – You Are A Cluster Of Clouds – Translation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Untitled XXIV by Yunus Emre
- Nominalism Is A Liquid Kuhi
- Владимир Высоцкий – Не могу ни выпить, ни забыться
- “Here have I learnt the little that I know” poem – Alfred Austin
- Валерий Брюсов – Газели
- The Breeze at Dawn by Jelaluddin Rumi
- A Welcome by William Browne
- The Dead King by Rudyard Kipling
- The Fall of Rome by W. H. Auden
- Sonnet: To Time by Sylvia Plath
- Вера Павлова – У святителя вместо спины
- Анатолий Жигулин – Горят сырые листья
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
- Readen Ov A Head-Stwone by William Barnes
- “The Girt Woak Tree That’s In the Dell” by William Barnes
- Praise O’ Do’set by William Barnes
- Polly Be-en Upzides Wi’ Tom by William Barnes
- Poll’s Jack-Daw by William Barnes
- A Pleäce In Zight by William Barnes
- Pentridge By The River by William Barnes
- Out At Plough by William Barnes
- Out A-Nuttèn by William Barnes
- Our Father’s Works by William Barnes
- Our Be’thplace by William Barnes
- Our Abode In Arby Wood by William Barnes
- Not Goo Hwome To-Night by William Barnes
- Night A-Zetten In by William Barnes
- Nanny’s New Abode by William Barnes
- Nanny’s Cow by William Barnes
- Naighbour Pla Meätes by William Barnes
- My Love’s Guardian Angel by William Barnes
- My Love Is Good by William Barnes
- Mornèn 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
Archie Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) was an important American poet, a modern classic, Ammons wrote about our relationship to nature in a way that is both comic and solemn. His poems often address religious and philosophical matters and scenes involving nature in a manner that is almost transcendental.