The Return of Persephone

Gliding through the still air, he made no sound;

Wing-shod and deft, dropped almost at her feet,

And searched the ghostly regiments and found

The living eyes, the tremor of breath, the beat

Of blood in all that bodiless underground.

She left her majesty; she loosed the zone

Of darkness and put by the rod of dread.

Standing, she turned her back upon the throne

Where, well she knew, the Ruler of the Dead,

Lord of her body and being, sat like stone;

Stared with his ravenous eyes to see her shake

The midnight drifting from her loosened hair,

The girl once more in all her actions wake,

The blush of colour in her cheeks appear

Lost with her flowers that day beside the lake.

The summer flowers scattering, the shout,

The black manes plunging down to the black pit —

Memory or dream? She stood awhile in doubt,

Then touched the Traveller God’s brown arm and met

His cool, bright glance and heard his words ring out:

“Queen of the Dead and Mistress of the Year!”

— His voice was the ripe ripple of the corn;

The touch of dew, the rush of morning air —

“Remember now the world where you were born;

The month of your return at last is here.”

And still she did not speak, but turned again

Looking for answer, for anger, for command:

The eyes of Dis were shut upon their pain;

Calm as his marble brow, the marble hand

Slept on his knee. Insuperable disdain

Foreknowing all bounds of passion, of power, of art,

Mastered but could not mask his deep despair.

Even as she turned with Hermes to depart,

Looking her last on her grim ravisher

For the first time she loved him from her heart.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 K. J., Leaving and Coming Back by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Exiles by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Desesperanto by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Dear Alzheimer’s by Maria Knox by Poetry In English
• Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Children of My Own by Marie Starr by Poetry In English
• Belly Good by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Baseball and Writing by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Attack of the Squash People by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Always Unsuitable by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• about emptiness… by Marina Cecilia Kohon by Poetry In English
• A Work Of Artifice by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• A Grave by Marianne Moore by Poetry In English
• Woman by Manmohan Acharya by Poetry In English
• Without exile, who am I? by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Winter’s End by Mac McGovern by Poetry In English
• Wind by Mac McGovern by Poetry In English
• What these girl means to me by Maphoto selokela by Poetry In English
• Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works