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

A few random poems:
- Owl by Sylvia Plath
- At Vaucluse poem – Alfred Austin
- a-tempest-in-a-teacup.html
- Анатолий Жигулин – Деревья с черными грачами
- Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel
- Владимир Луговской – Курсантская венгерка
- If It Is True What the Prophets Write by William Blake
- Николай Языков – Песня (От сердца дружные с вином)
- Василий Тредиаковский – К почтению, льзя объявить любовь
- In Poetry by Rifat Ilgaz
- L’Allegro poem – John Milton poems
- The Earth Trembles by Shahida Latif
- On The Death Of Mr Crashaw
- Иван Бунин – Алёнушка
- From Behind The Lattice
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
- The Buried Train by Robert Bly
- The Defunct Drugstore by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
- The Apple Trees at Olema by Robert Hass
- Snowbanks North of the House by Robert Bly
- Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos
- Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan
- No, Love Is Not Dead by Robert Desnos
- Need by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
- My Mother Would Be a Falconress by Robert Duncan
- Misery And Splendor by Robert Hass
- Lying Down by Robert Desnos
- Long Long Ago by Robert Desnos
- Iowa City: Early April by Robert Hass
- Interrupted Meditation by Robert Hass
- If You Only Knew by Robert Desnos
- Identity of Images by Robert Desnos
- I Have Dreamed of You so Much by Robert Desnos
- Heroic Simile by Robert Hass
- Fairy Tale by Robert Desnos
- Dove in the Arch by Robert Desnos
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