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:
- Free Men Of God by John Oxenham
- I Dream of my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
- Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost
- Николай Заболоцкий – Офорт
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Переход
- Sonnet: Oh! How I Love, On A Fair Summer’s Eve poem – John Keats poems
- Li Po drowns by Raj Arumugam
- Mystic by Sylvia Plath
- Bamboo Adobe by Wang Wei
- The Old Manor House
- FLORECER by Manolo Arriola
- Pure call of the wilderness by Vinko Kalinic
- Олег Бундур – Хорошее слово
- Birthday Love Song by Miraj Patel
- Young mother by Sunil Sharma
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
- From Milton: And did those feet by William Blake
- Blind Man’s Buff by William Blake
- XVI: Some Verses: Of Conquerouris by William Alexander
- XV: Some Verses: Ciprian’s Smyling by William Alexander
- XIV: Some Verses: To Mr. Edward Allane by William Alexander
- XIII: Some Verses: On A Report On The Death Of The Author by William Alexander
- A Slumber did my Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth
- A Sketch by William Wordsworth
- A Poet’s Epitaph by William Wordsworth
- A Poet! He Hath Put His Heart To School by William Wordsworth
- A Parsonage In Oxfordshire by William Wordsworth
- A Morning Exercise by William Wordsworth
- A Jewish Family In A Small Valley Opposite St. Goar, Upon The Rhine by William Wordsworth
- A Gravestone Upon The Floor In The Cloisters Of Worcester Cathedral by William Wordsworth
- A Fact, And An Imagination, Or, Canute And Alfred, On The Seashore by William Wordsworth
- A Complaint by William Wordsworth
- XII: Some Verses: Sonnet, To The Authour by William Alexander
- XI: Some Verses: To His Worthy Friend Master Walter Quin by William Alexander
- X: Some Verses: To His Most Affectionate Friend Mr. Lithgow by William Alexander
- VII: Some Verses: On The Death of John Murray by William Alexander
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