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:
- Myfanwy poem – John Betjeman poems
- Scots Prologue for Mr. Sutherland by Robert Burns
- One Day In Spring…. by Rabindranath Tagore
- La Nuit Blanche by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Корнилов – Незадача
- With Scindia to Delphi by Rudyard Kipling
- forever blue by Steve Troyanovich
- The Sea-Wife by Rudyard Kipling
- Николай Огарев – Прощанье с краем, откуда не уезжал
- Come, Let Us Find by William Henry Davies
- Михаил Лермонтов – Венеция
- Ambrosia by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- Олег Григорьев – Пьет оса кисель из чашки
- Look Down, Fair Moon. by Walt Whitman
- Sonet 47 by William Alexander
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
- For Sale by Shel Silverstein
- Folk Singer’s Blues by Shel Silverstein
- Father Of A Boy Named Sue by Shel Silverstein
- Everybody’s Makin’ It Big But Me by Shel Silverstein
- Enter This Deserted House by Shel Silverstein
- Dreadful by Shel Silverstein
- Don’t Give A Dose To The One You Love Most by Shel Silverstein
- Dirty Ol’ Me by Shel Silverstein
- Dance To It by Shel Silverstein
- Crouchin’ On The Outside by Shel Silverstein
- Crocodile’s Toothache by Shel Silverstein
- Come Skating by Shel Silverstein
- Come After Jinny by Shel Silverstein
- Colors by Shel Silverstein
- Cloudy Sky by Shel Silverstein
- Clarence by Shel Silverstein
- Channels by Shel Silverstein
- Changing Of The Seasons by Shel Silverstein
- Captain Hook by Shel Silverstein
- Bury Me In My Shades by Shel Silverstein
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