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:
- Cuchulan’s Fight With The Sea by William Butler Yeats
- The Squirrel by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Robert Burns: My Eppie Adair:
- Ольга Седакова – Selva selvaggia
- Sonnet III: Look In Thy Glass, and Tell the Face Thou Viewest by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Маяковский – С Польшей подписан мир… (РОСТА №428)
- Sonnet V by Mahmoud Darwish
- Design by Robert Frost
- Reverie Ofmahomed Akram At The Tamarind Tank
- Dawn by Rupert Brooke
- May-Night by William Ellery Leonard
- Иван Бунин – Пустыня, грусть в степных просторах
- The face wanted by Vinko Kalinić
- Наум Коржавин – Он собирался многое свершить
- Fight to a Finish by Siegfried Sassoon
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
- Ольга Берггольц – Я тайно и горько ревную
- Ольга Берггольц – Из блокнота сорок первого года
- Ольга Берггольц – Мы предчувствовали полыханье
- Ольга Берггольц – Я иду по местам боев
- Ольга Берггольц – Я говорю
- Ольга Берггольц – Второй разговор с соседкой
- Ольга Берггольц – Встреча
- Ольга Берггольц – Возвращение
- Ольга Берггольц – Вот я выбирала для разлуки
- Ольга Берггольц – Воспоминание (И вот в лицо пахнуло земляникой)
- Ольга Берггольц – В ложе Цимлянского моря
- Ольга Берггольц – В доме Павлова
- Ольга Берггольц – Украина
- Ольга Берггольц – Твоя молодость
- Ольга Берггольц – Триптих 1949 года
- Ольга Берггольц – Тост
- Ольга Берггольц – Таков мой подарок тебе за измену
- Ольга Берггольц – Так еще ни разу не забыла
- Ольга Берггольц – Стихи о ленинградских большевика
- Ольга Берггольц – Старая гвардия
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