Tiger

At noon thepaper tigers roar

— Miroslav Holub

The paper tigers roar at noon;

The sun is hot, the sun is high.

They roar in chorus, not in tune,

Their plaintive, savage hunting cry.

O, when you hear them, stop your ears

And clench your lids and bite your tongue.

The harmless paper tiger bears

Strong fascination for the young.

His forest is the busy street;

His dens the forum and the mart;

He drinks no blood, he tastes no meat:

He riddles and corrupts the heart.

But when the dusk begins to creep

From tree to tree, from door to door,

The jungle tiger wakes from sleep

And utters his authentic roar.

It bursts the night and shakes the stars

Till one breaks blazing from the sky;

Then listen! If to meet it soars

Your heart’s reverberating cry,

My child, then put aside your fear:

Unbar the door and walk outside!

The real tiger waits you there;

His golden eyes shall be your guide.

And, should he spare you in his wrath,

The world and all the worlds are yours;

And should he leap thejungle path

And clasp you with his bloody jaws,

Then say, as his divine embrace

Destroys the mortal parts of you:

I too am of that royal race

Who do what we are born to do.

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Poems in English 

• The Eclipsed Past by Tholana Ashok Chakravarthy by Poetry In English
• The Call of the Crows by Tanmoy by Poetry In English
• The Blind Man by Théophile Gautier by Poetry In English
• The Beautiful Heartbreak by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• Snow Flakes by Tala Bar by Poetry In English
• Selecting A Reader by Ted Kooser by Poetry In English
• Seasons by Tala Bar by Poetry In English
• Ritual by Tala Bar by Poetry In English
• Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson by Poetry In English
• On The Move ‘Man, You Gotta Go. by Thom Gunn by Poetry In English
• My Sad Captains by Thom Gunn by Poetry In English
• Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali by Poetry In English
• Lucid Dreams by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• Love In Reverse by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• Love Equals Insanity by Talha Jafri by Poetry In English
• Light by Tala Bar by Poetry In English
• Last Poem by Ted Berrigan by Poetry In English
• In January by Ted Kooser by Poetry In English
• I Want It Now by Roald Dahl by Poetry In English
• Exodus by Taha Muhammad Ali by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

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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.

 

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