The British
by A. S. J. Tessimond
We are a people living in shells and moving
Crablike; reticent, awkward, deeply suspicious;
Watching the world from a corner of half-closed eyelids,
Afraid lest someone show that he hates or loves us,
Afraid lest someone weep in the railway train.
We are coiled and clenched like a foetus clad in armour.
We hold our hearts for fear they fly like eagles.
We grasp our tongues for fear they cry like trumpets.
We listen to our own footsteps. We look both ways
Before we cross the silent empty road.
We are a people easily made uneasy,
Especially wary of praise, of passion, of scarlet
Cloaks, of gesturing hands, of the smiling stranger
In the alien hat who talks to all or the other
In the unfamiliar coat who talks to none.
We are afraid of too-cold thought or too-hot
Blood, of the opening of long-shut shafts or cupboards,
Of light in caves, of X-rays, probes, unclothing
Of emotion, intolerable revelation
Of lust in the light, of love in the palm of the hand.
We are afraid of, one day on a sunny morning,
Meeting ourselves or another without the usual
Outer sheath, the comfortable conversation,
And saying all, all, all we did not mean to,
All, all, all we did not know we meant.
A few random poems:
- Илья Эренбург – Я так любил тебя, до грубых шуток
- In the End by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- In a Vale by Robert Frost
- Анатолий Жигулин – Береза
- Chungnan by Wang Wei
- Alone in Crowds to Wander On by Thomas Moore
- The Double Vision Of Michael Robartes by William Butler Yeats
- Жан де Лафонтен – Третейский Судья, Брат милосердия и Пустынник
- The Novelist by W H Auden
- Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls Into Besieged City by Thomas Lux
- Desire by Samuel Coleridge
- Whoever Comes From The Earth by Nelly Sachs
- Nature And the Book poem – Alfred Austin
- A Port Of Refuge Agleam With The Aura Of Love by Walter William Safar
- The Saint And The Hunchback by William Butler Yeats
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
- Anteater by Shel Silverstein
- All The Time In The World by Shel Silverstein
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Alimony by Shel Silverstein
- A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein
- A Front Row Seat To Hear Ole Johnny Sing by Shel Silverstein
- A Couple More Years by Shel Silverstein
- 25 Minutes To Go by Shel Silverstein
- 100,000 Pennies by Shel Silverstein
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Night At The Marina by Shreekumar Varma
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
- Kumarakom (after the boat tragedy) by Shreekumar Varma
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
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