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:
- By The Fates poem – Alfred Austin
- lines_and_squares.html
- Rosslyn To The Prime Minister by Graham Rowlands
- Robert Burns: The Banks Of The Devon:
- Robert Burns: The Lover’s Morning Salute To His Mistress:
- A Woman Unconscious by Ted Hughes
- An Elegy poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Sometimes by Vinko Kalinić
- Shut Not Your Doors, &c. by Walt Whitman
- Of Three Or Four In The Room by Yehuda Amichai
- Love’s Fitfulness poem – Alfred Austin
- Portals. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: To A Louse: On Seeing One On A Lady’s Bonnet, At Church
- Владимир Маяковский – За четыре года советской власти… (Главполитпросвет №248)
- Act of Union by Seamus Heaney
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
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 3 к статуе Петра Великого
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 1 к статуе Петра Великого
- Михаил Ломоносов – На сочетание стихов Российских
- Михаил Ломоносов – На Сарское село августа 24 дня 1764 года
- Михаил Ломоносов – На Фридриха II, короля Прусского (Сочинение господина Вольтера, переведенное господином Ломоносовым)
- Михаил Ломоносов – Молчите, струйки чисты
- Михаил Ломоносов – Лишь только дневной шум замолк
- Михаил Ломоносов – День коронования Великия государыни императрицы Елисаветы Петровны
- Михаил Ломоносов – Чем ты дале прочь отходишь
- Михаил Ломоносов – Богиня, дщерь божеств, науки основавших
- Михаил Лермонтов – Звуки и взор
- Михаил Лермонтов – Зови надежду сновиденьем
- Михаил Лермонтов – Жена севера
- Михаил Лермонтов – Желанье
- Михаил Лермонтов – Земля и небо
- Михаил Лермонтов – Завещание
- Михаил Лермонтов – Забудь опять свои надежды
- Михаил Лермонтов – Юнкерская молитва
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я видел тень блаженства
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я счастлив, тайный яд течёт в моей крови
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.