Because a razor cuts across a frame of film,
I wince, squinting my eye,
and because my day needs assembly
to make sense of the scenes anyway,
making a story from some pieces of truth, I go
outside to gather those pieces.
Thousands of moments spooling out
frames of mistakes in my day.
As if anyone’s to blame,
as if anyone could interpret the colliding
images, again and again, dragging
my imagination behind me,
I begin assembling.
I don’t know anything, so I seek
directions, following the path
of ants from your palm, out
the apartment door to
a beach. Is this where I’m
supposed to ask if my hands on you
bend some light around shade? Maybe
I’m not ready for the answer. They say
art imitates what we can sculpt or write
or just see when we turn ourselves
inside out. I can’t turn my eye away
from the sight of failure. The rain pelts rooftops.
I listen to the song, thinking
when the sun comes back,
beating down the door
in my head, I’ll salvage whatever sits
still long enough for me to render,
before anyone knows what really happened.
A few random poems:
- The Bridge of Sighs by Thomas Hood
- Future Verdict
- Владимир Корнилов – Державинское
- In Spring, Santa Barbara by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мажорный светофор, трёхцветье, трио
- Омар Хайям – Благородные люди, друг друга любя
- ah, happy crow by Raj Arumugam
- Николай Гумилев – Как труп, бессилен небосклон
- The Secrets Of Divine Love Are To Be Kept by William Cowper
- For Friends Only by W. H. Auden
- A Night-Piece by William Wordsworth
- The Witching Hour by Norma Martiri
- Alone
- Владимир Маяковский – Вот за то, что я пою… (Главполитпросвет №153)
- Зинаида Александрова – Подснежник
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
- England! The Time Is Come When Thou Should’st Wean by William Wordsworth
- Emperors And Kings, How Oft Have Temples Rung by William Wordsworth
- Ellen Irwin Or The Braes Of Kirtle by William Wordsworth
- Elegiac Stanzas Suggested By A Picture Of Peele Castle by William Wordsworth
- Dion [See Plutarch] by William Wordsworth
- Crusaders by William Wordsworth
- Composed While The Author Was Engaged In Writing A Tract Occasioned By The Convention Of Cintra by William Wordsworth
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed on The Eve Of The Marriage Of A Friend In The Vale Of Grasmere by William Wordsworth
- Composed Near Calais, On The Road Leading To Ardres, August 7, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed In The Valley Near Dover, On The Day Of Landing by William Wordsworth
- Composed During A Storm by William Wordsworth
- Composed By The Side Of Grasmere Lake 1806 by William Wordsworth
- Composed By The Sea-Side, Near Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Composed At The Same Time And On The Same Occasion by William Wordsworth
- Composed After A Journey Across The Hambleton Hills, Yorkshire by William Wordsworth
- Characteristics Of A Child Three Years Old by William Wordsworth
- Character Of The Happy Warrior by William Wordsworth
- Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel. by William Wordsworth
- “Call Not The Royal Swede Unfortunate” by William Wordsworth
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

A. Van Jordan, born 1965 in Akron, Ohio, USA, is a contemporary American poet and the author of four important collections: Rise, which won the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award (Tia Chucha Press, 2001); M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, (2005), which was listed as one the Best Books of 2005 by the London Times; Quantum Lyrics, (W.W. Norton, 2007); and The Cineaste (W.W. Norton,, 2013). Jordan has been awarded a Whiting Writers Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and a Pushcart Prize.