Two Songs

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.

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 

• Awed by her splendor by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• To Aphrodite by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• And their feet move by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Anactoria by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• An Epithalamium by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Although they are by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• In Adoration by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• A Lament For Adonis by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• A Hymn To Venus by Sappho by Sappho Σαπφώ
• Youth And The Pilgrim by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• Triolets by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• To L. R. E. by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• To A Picture Of Eleanor Duse by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• To A Castillan Song by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• Since There Is No Escape by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Wine by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Wind by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Wind In The Hemlock by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Wayfarer by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale
• The Wanderer by Sara Teasdale by Sara Teasdale

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