Woman In Front Of Poster Of Herself poem – Alice Notley

Said I shouldn’t.

Fingering me.

Everything I did.

A litter of chewed knucklebones

I’ve spread them out over the

rectangular floor as regularly as

I can; so I can account for them.

Her hands are crossed over

her breasts and each holds

a feather; her face has no features

Have I come to beg

What do I wish — to be

judged?

Is it an accumulation

of what I’ve said, that

counts, that I’m counting

is it all alphabet and abacus

everything rhymed?

You still don’t have a face.

Suddenly she has the face of a

cat.

No that’s a different

goddess.

I tell you this

bloodthirsty

jaguar…

I don’t have any idea what my word is, I

mean fault. Is it a word or an act. The

whole thrill is ripping me apart

Inside these

words there’s nothing but a pumping

bloodsoaked…

but clearly, everything I said, did,

was a long shot

We didn’t hear a word

What have you ever heard?

Now I’m here — black-caped in a

chair. Animal staring at me

I sink into your disaffected

ambiance to name.

What emotional

charges

have been laid on me from

earliest times

and my own

earliest

resulting in the bone strewn carpet

I had to grow the dice

of accounting to your love; for

you made me speak to you

lovingly; or did I do that naturally

oh just, bloodthirsty face

who doesn’t have to understand.

I don’t know who I’m speaking to

is pushing me

Judgment maybe it’s when being

fragile I

hallucinate you best

I don’t want to use my name!

‘Where I was born we girls ran

free. and named ourselves,’

Justice says.

She may kill me,

it depends on whether she’s hungry

Copyright ©: 
Alice Notley

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 

• Unlyric Love Song by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• Tube Station by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• To Be Blind by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• The Man In The Bowler Hat by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• the_children_look_at_the_parents.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• The British by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• symphony_in_red.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• seaport.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• sea.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• quickstep.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• polyphony_in_a_cathedral.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• one_almost_might.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• nursery_rhyme_for_a_twenty_first_birthday.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• not_love_perhaps.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• night_piece.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• never.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• music.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• meeting.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• last_word_to_childhood.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
• june_sick_room.html by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond

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