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:
- He is more than a hero by Sappho
- Exeat by Stevie Smith
- What the Gray-Winged Fairy Said by Vachel Lindsay
- Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn
- Dirge for Two Veterans. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For Robert Aiken, Esq.:
- Baby’s World by Rabindranath Tagore
- My Precious Girl by Tiffany Ann Monroe
- Despair by Samuel Coleridge
- Four Quartets 2: East Coker by T. S. Eliot
- Death Sir Henry Wootton
- Being Underwater by Sahiti Siddharth
- South Africa by Ronald G. Auguste
- Tell Me
- INTO THE LAIR by Satish Verma
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
- Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope House by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Major Logan by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Rankine by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Maxwell, Esq., of Terraughty by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Goldie, in Kilmarnock by Robert Burns
- Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner by Robert Burns
- Epistle to James Smith by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Hugh Parker by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Dr. Blacklock by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Colonel de Peyster by Robert Burns
- Epistle to a Young Friend by Robert Burns
- Epistle on J. Lapraik by Robert Burns
- Epistle from Esopus to Maria by Robert Burns
- Epigrams against the Earl of Galloway by Robert Burns
- Epigram to Miss Jean Scott by Robert Burns
- Epigram to Miss Ainslie in Church by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The True Loyal Natives by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The Toad-eater by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The Raptures of Folly by Robert Burns
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.