Bearhug
by Michael Ondaatje
Griffin calls to come and kiss him goodnight
I yell ok. Finish something I’m doing,
then something else, walk slowly round
the corner to my son’s room.
He is standing arms outstretched
waiting for a bearhug. Grinning.
Why do I give my emotion an animal’s name,
give it that dark squeeze of death?
This is the hug which collects
all his small bones and his warm neck against me.
The thin tough body under the pyjamas
locks to me like a magnet of blood.
How long was he standing there
like that, before I came?
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Омар Хайям – Если счастлив от счастья
- Низами Гянджеви – Ради встречи с тобой я до края земли дошел
- His Bargain by William Butler Yeats
- Ольга Берггольц – Мы предчувствовали полыханье
- The Princess (The Conclusion) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Ice Palace by William Cowper
- To John Keats poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Юлия Жадовская – Заколдованное сердце
- Translated from Geibel poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- As if by Sara Herlihy
- A Figurative Description Of The Procedure Of Divine Love by William Cowper
- Sleep
- The Roussalka poem – Alexander Pushkin
- A Subaltern by Siegfried Sassoon
- Николай Языков – Дом сумасшедших в Дерпте
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).

Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943) is a renowned Canadian author and poet. He is best known for his novel “The English Patient,” which won the Booker Prize and was later adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. Ondaatje’s works often explore themes of identity, memory, and the impact of war. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to literature and is considered a significant figure in contemporary Canadian literature.