To make sure
You have not said:
“I love you,”
They smell your breath.
They even smell your heart
Trying times are these, my darling.
They flog love
Tied to the post of the cul-de-sac
We must hide love in the closet.
In this serpentine maze
This crooked cold corner
They feed the fire
With poems and songs
Thinking, too, is risky.
Those who, late at night, knock on the door,
Are there to kill the lamp.
We must hide the light in the closet.
Then there are the butchers
Stationed at all cross-roads,
Armed with a block and a bloody cleaver.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Surgically,
They plant smiles on lips,
And songs in the mouths.
We must hide joy in the closet.
On lilies and lilacs,
They roast the canaries.
Trying times these are, my darling.
Drunk with victory, the Devil,
Celebrates our wake.
We must hide God in the closet.
A few random poems:
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 1 к статуе Петра Великого
- I Have a Fire for You in my Mouth by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- The Poplars by William Barnes
- I have outlived my own desires by Alexander Pushkin (Pouchkine)
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Плач
- The Rainy Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- Вера Павлова – В ранец тетрадки собраны
- English Poetry. William Barnes. Third Collection. The Broken Heart. Уильям Барнс.
- I Stood Tip-Toe Upon A Little Hill poem – John Keats poems
- The Olympic Girl poem – John Betjeman poems
- Orlando Furioso Canto 8 by Ludovico Ariosto
- The humble earthen lamp by Sunil Sharma
- Анатолий Жигулин – Ах, как весело листья летят
- Алексей Жемчужников – Отголосок девятой симфонии Бетховена
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Весенний дождь
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
- Reason Use It Divine Matters
- Reason The Use Of It In Divine Matters
- Platonick Love
- On The Death Of Sir Henry Wootton
- On The Death Of Mr William Hervey
- On The Death Of Mr Crashaw
- Of Wit
- Not Fair
- Life
- Hymn To Light
- Hymn Light
- Epitaph
- Despair
- Death Sir Henry Wootton
- Davideis Sacred Poem Troubles David Excerpt
- Davideis A Sacred Poem Of The Troubles Of David Excerpt
- Cousel
- Constantias Song
- Constantia039s Song
- Concealment
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
