A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
1.
Sex, as they harshly call it,
I fell into this morning
at ten o’clock, a drizzling hour
of traffic and wet newspapers.
I thought of him who yesterday
clearly didn’t
turn me to a hot field
ready for plowing,
and longing for that young man
pierced me to the roots
bathing every vein, etc.
All day he appears to me
touchingly desirable,
a prize one could wreck one’s peace for.
I’d call it love if love
didn’t take so many years
but lust too is a jewel
a sweet flower and what
pure happiness to know
all our high-toned questions
breed in a lively animal.
2.
That “old last act”!
And yet sometimes
all seems post coitum triste
and I a mere bystander.
Somebody else is going off,
getting shot to the moon.
Or a moon-race!
Split seconds after
my opposite number lands
I make it–
we lie fainting together
at a crater-edge
heavy as mercury in our moonsuits
till he speaks–
in a different language
yet one I’ve picked up
through cultural exchanges…
we murmur the first moonwords:
Spasibo. Thanks. O.K.

A few random poems:
- Children of My Own by Marie Starr
- Олег Григорьев – Дождь
- The Land Of Happy by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про стукача
- Степан Щипачев – За селом синел далекий лес
- Elegy to the Old Man Hokuju by Yosa Buson
- Summa poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Heel & Toe To The End by William Carlos Williams
- On Mistress Nicely, a Pattern for Housekeepers by Thomas Hood
- Spring Thing by Paul Blackburn
- The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton
- Grass by Russell Edson
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- Solitude poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Владимир Корнилов – Разговор
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
- The Defiance Of Eteocles
- The Decree Of Athena
- The Complaint Of Prometheus
- The Beacon Fires
- The Battle Of Salamis
- Song Of The Furies
- Prometheus Amid Hurricane And Earthquake
- Prayer Artemis
- Lament Two Brothers Slain Each Other039s Hand
- Lament For The Two Brothers Slain By Each Others Hand
- Fragment From Aeschylus
- Complaint Prometheus
- Battle Salamis
- A Prayer For Artemis
- On Twitter
- Victory
- Valediction Forbidding Mourning
- Two Songs
- Stepping Backward
- Snapshots Of A Daughter In Law By Adrienne Rich
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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.