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:
- Иннокентий Анненский – Листы
- Robert Burns: Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie:
- Нина Воронель – Высокосный год
- Николай Карамзин – Берег
- The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Британишский – Клейнмихель
- Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope House by Robert Burns
- Юлия Жадовская – Возврат весны
- A Man Young And Old: VII. The Friends Of His Youth by William Butler Yeats
- Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell
- Prelude by Shaunna Harper
- Юнна Мориц – Котик
- Robert Burns: The Auld Farmer’s New-Year-Morning Salutation To His Auld Mare, Maggie: On giving her the accustomed ripp of corn to hansel in the New Year.
- Rosslyn To The Prime Minister by Graham Rowlands
- M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School–Detroit, 1942 by Philip Levine
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 – А. Н. Вульфу (Мой брат по вольности и хмелю)
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Татаринову (Здорово, брат! Поставь сюда две чаши)
- Николай Языков – А. Н. Очкину (Было время, мой приятель)
- Николай Языков – А. М. Языкову (Теперь, когда пророчественный дар)
- Николай Языков – А. И. Готовцевой (Влюблен я, дева-красота)
- Николай Языков – А. А. Воейковой (На петербургскую дорогу)
- Николай Языков – А. А. Елагину (Была прекрасна, весела…)
- Николай Тихонов – Ленинград
- Николай Тихонов – Крутили мельниц диких жернова
- Николай Тихонов – Когда уйду
- Николай Тихонов – Когда людям советским
- Николай Тихонов – Как след от весла
- Николай Тихонов – Инд
- Николай Тихонов – И сказал женщине суд
- Николай Тихонов – Гулливер играет в карты
- Николай Тихонов – Другу
- Николай Тихонов – Длинный путь
- Николай Тихонов – Даль полевая, как при Калите
- Николай Тихонов – Берлин 9 мая
- Николай Тихонов – Баллада о гвоздях
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
