by Alan J. Blaustein
Valhalla
by Alan J. Blaustein
High on West Street walking summer day
Sunlight in my face and to my right
Seeing more the Hudson than the street ahead.
I expected factories parking lots and bars,
Nothing else than pleasant afternoon
And then the wonder stopped me seized my sight.
Valhalla? Yes, it was!
Risen in all magnificence from the street
As proudly massive blocks of—stone.
It instantly awed me reduced me to a speck—
For what great purpose could this be?
Home for a breed of freshly risen gods?
I walked beside amazed and looking up
Until I came upon a massive porch
That stretched before great doors of glass and bronze,
Flanked by pillars, granite guards.
A plaque above the doors, all shining bronze,
Proclaimed the name.
Look what the age of heroes has become,
Look how Odin’s dream has re-emerged,
See how the ordinary conquers all,
How wonder can vanish like a wisp of smoke…
I saw for what my hall of gods was built—
Manhattan Community College!

A few random poems:
- Анатолий Жигулин – Марта, Марта! Весеннее имя
- Николай Языков – Девятое мая
- Swift’s Epitaph by William Butler Yeats
- Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Н. Ф. Щербине
- Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston, South Carolina poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to an Excise Division by Robert Burns
- Sonnet Vii
- Robert Burns: The Farewell To the Brethren of St. James’ Lodge, Tarbolton:
- Untitled XVII by Yunus Emre
- Владимир Британишский – Двуединство души
- Grass is a taut crew; poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
- Epitaph on “Wee Johnnie” by Robert Burns
- Women’s Harvest Song poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Philip Levine – Philip Levine
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
- Gravity Suspended
- From Death
- Forfeiture
- For My Mother
- Fly Fly Butterfly
- Even The Rain
- Destiny Far Away
- Conversation
- Calling All Angels
- At The Locks Of The Void
- Anthem
- All In A Word
- A Teenage Pregnancy
- A Painting Morning
- A Child Of War
- Your Dream
- Ars Poetica
- The Vision Of Cassandra
- The Sacrifice Of Iphigenia
- The Lament Of The Old Nurse
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