The Bayadere

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

Flaked, drifting clouds hide not the full moon’s rays

More than her beautiful bright limbs were hid

By the light veils they burned and blushed amid,

Skilled to provoke in soft, lascivious ways,

And there was invitation in her voice

And laughing lips and wonderful dark eyes,

As though above the gates of Paradise

Fair verses bade, Be welcome and rejoice!

O’er rugs where mottled blue and green and red

Blent in the patterns of the Orient loom,

Like a bright butterfly from bloom to bloom,

She floated with delicious arms outspread.

There was no pose she took, no move she made,

But all the feverous, love-envenomed flesh

Wrapped round as in the gladiator’s mesh

And smote as with his triple-forked blade.

I thought that round her sinuous beauty curled

Fierce exhalations of hot human love, —

Around her beauty valuable above

The sunny outspread kingdoms of the world;

Flowing as ever like a dancing fire

Flowed her belled ankles and bejewelled wrists,

Around her beauty swept like sanguine mists

The nimbus of a thousand hearts’ desire.

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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 

• Welcome A.O.H. Men by Michael McGovern by Poetry In English
• Weekend Glory by Maya Angelou by Poetry In English
• Twilight Acts of Decadence. by Michael Levy by Poetry In English
• Travel to Infinite Places by Michael Levy by Poetry In English
• To A Cricket by Michael McGovern by Poetry In English
• The Woods At Night by May Swenson by Poetry In English
• The Waradgery Tribe by Mary Gilmore by Poetry In English
• The Rock Cries Out to Us Today by Maya Angelou by Poetry In English
• The Passing of Stumpy Shore by Mervyn John Webster by Poetry In English
• The Mothering Blackness by Maya Angelou by Poetry In English
• The Meaning of Music by Mercedes Madrigal by Poetry In English
• The Lesson by Maya Angelou by Poetry In English
• The January Birds by Maurice Riordan by Poetry In English
• The Hermit Goes Up Attic by Maxine Kumin by Poetry In English
• The Gravy Train by Michael Levy by Poetry In English
• The Fishermen, The Gulls & The Bible People by Michael Estabrook by Poetry In English
• The First Thrush by Mary Gilmore by Poetry In English
• The Fairies Break Their Dances by A. E. Housman by Poetry In English
• The Burning Crusade by Memphis Knight by Poetry In English
• The Rolling Mills by Michael McGovern by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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.

 

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