by Alden Nowlan
Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain,
lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar,
stumbling through tamarack swamps,
came the bull moose
to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture.
Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware
there was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle.
They, scenting the musk of death, seeing his great head
like the ritual mask of a blood god, moved to the other end
of the field, and waited.
The neighbours heard of it, and by afternoon
cars lined the road. The children teased him
with alder switches and he gazed at them
like an old, tolerant collie. The woman asked
if he could have escaped from a Fair.
The oldest man in the parish remembered seeing
a gelded moose yoked with an ox for plowing.
The young men snickered and tried to pour beer
down his throat, while their girl friends took their pictures.
And the bull moose let them stroke his tick-ravaged flanks,
let them pry open his jaws with bottles, let a giggling girl
plant a little purple cap
of thistles on his head.
When the wardens came, everyone agreed it was a shame
to shoot anything so shaggy and cuddlesome.
He looked like the kind of pet
women put to bed with their sons.
So they held their fire. But just as the sun dropped in the river
the bull moose gathered his strength
like a scaffolded king, straightened and lifted his horns
so that even the wardens backed away as they raised their rifles.
When he roared, people ran to their cars. All the young men
leaned on their automobile horns as he toppled.
A few random poems:
- Let It Be Forgotten by Sara Teasdale
- The Kerry Cow by Winifred Mary Letts
- Crazy Jane And Jack The Journeyman by William Butler Yeats
- Words Of Love Forevermore by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- The Sirens’ Song by William Browne
- Speaking the Language of Deer by Martin Willitts Jr.
- Владимир Степанов – Хрюшка
- Burnt in contemplation by Nishant Deherkar
- Василий Казин – Ну, тебя ль, далекая
- Four Days In Vermont by Robert Creeley
- The Fairies’ Siege by Rudyard Kipling
- On The Eating Of Mice by Russell Edson
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Sonnet XIII. Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
- Наум Коржавин – Памяти Герцена или Баллада об историческом недосыпе
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
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Тимашевой (Молодая ученица)
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Свербеевой (Мысль неразгульного поэта)
- Николай Языков – Две картины
- Николай Языков – Дума (Одну минуту, много две)
- Николай Языков – Дом сумасшедших в Дерпте
- Николай Языков – Девятое мая
- Николай Языков – Дева ночи
- Николай Языков – Давным-давно люблю я страстно
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
- Николай Языков – Чувствительное путешествие в Ревель
- Николай Языков – Благодарю вас за цветы
- Николай Языков – Баян к русскому воину
- Николай Языков – Ау
- Николай Языков – Альпийская песня
- Николай Языков – Аделаиде (Я твой, я твой, Аделаида)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Тихвинскому (Как знать, куда моя дорога)
- Николай Языков – А. В. Киреевой (Тогда как сердцем мы лелеем)
- Николай Языков – А. С. Дириной
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Теперь я в Камби, милый мой)
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Вульфу (Нe называй меня поэтом)
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
