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:
- The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove
- Youth
- After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman
- Fierce Mooning by Satish Verma
- Владимир Британишский – На полпути в Илимск
- Владимир Британишский – Композитор
- Infant Sorrow by William Blake
- Robert Burns: On Tam The Chapman:
- Finis by Walter Savage Landor
- Gigolo by Sylvia Plath
- Михаил Кузмин – Утраченного чародейства
- Postures by Martina Reisz Newberry
- Ape And Coffee by Russell Edson
- Don’t Ceäre by William Barnes
- Cell Mate
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
- A Wasted Illness by Thomas Hardy
- A Thunderstorm In Town by Thomas Hardy
- A Jog-Trot Pair by Thomas Hardy
- A Dream Or No by Thomas Hardy
- Ye Mariners of England by Thomas Campbell
- To the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
- The Last Man by Thomas Campbell
- The Dirge of Wallace by Thomas Campbell
- The Battle of the Baltic by Thomas Campbell
- Song to the Evening Star by Thomas Campbell
- Ode to Winter by Thomas Campbell
- Ode to the Memory of Burns by Thomas Campbell
- Love And Madness by Thomas Campbell
- Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell
- Hohenlinden by Thomas Campbell
- Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell
- Freedom And Love by Thomas Campbell
- Benlomond by Thomas Campbell
- Adelgitha by Thomas Campbell
- The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton
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.