The Children Look At The Parents
by A. S. J. Tessimond
We being so hidden from those who
Have quietly borne and fed us,
How can we answer civilly
Their innocent invitations?
How can we say “we see you
As but-for-God’s-grace-ourselves, as
Our caricatures (we yours), with
Time’s telescope between us”?
How can we say “you presumed on
The accident of kinship,
Assumed our friendship coatlike,
Not as a badge one fights for”?
How say “and you remembered
The sins of our outlived selves and
Your own forgiveness, buried
The hatchet to slow music;
Shared money but not your secrets;
Will leave as your final legacy
A box double-locked by the spider
Packed with your unsolved problems”?
How say all this without capitals,
Italics, anger or pathos,
To those who have seen from the womb come
Enemies? How not say it?

A few random poems:
- A reason for you by Pritha halder
- Nominalism Is A Liquid Kuhi
- An Epistle To Robert Lloyd, Esq. by William Cowper
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Солнце садится
- In Answer to a Request poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Пируя праздник возвращенья
- Ballade Of Roulette poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Ольга Седакова – Три зеркала
- Федор Тютчев – Как дымный столп светлеет в вышине
- Алексей Жемчужников – Пауза
- My Father was a Farmer: A Ballad by Robert Burns
- from The Tenth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Countrywomen by Katherine Mansfield
- When I Looked At You by Patrick Neo Mabiletsa
- Address to the Unco Guid by Robert Burns
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
- Afridi Love
- Adoration
- Whispering In Wattle Boughs
- Thoras Song Ashtaroth
- The Swimmer
- The Sick Stockrider
- The Last Leap
- Gone
- An Exiles Farewell
- A Song Of Autumn
- A Dedication
- Medical Ethics
- Vain
- Myself
- My Heritage
- Miserimus
- Memory
- Karazah Karl
- Judith
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