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:
- Николай Огарев – Свисти ты, о ветер, с бессонною силой
- Paradise Lost: Book 09 poem – John Milton poems
- Conversation With My Heart by Russ Pergram
- Владимир Высоцкий – Я сказал врачу: “Я за все плачу!”
- Михаил Кузмин – Все дни у Бога хороши
- “Here, where the vine and fig bask hand in hand,” poem – Alfred Austin
- Last Words poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Temple Dancing Girl
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Песнь соловья
- Владимир Маяковский – Голодные! Пан Украину грабит… (РОСТА №106)
- Ольга Седакова – Плач
- Юлия Друнина – Геологиня
- Sonnet LV by William Shakespeare
- Passer-By, These Are Words by Yves Bonnefoy
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
- Яков Полонский – Цветок
- Яков Полонский – Чтобы песня моя разлилась как поток
- Яков Полонский – Чайка
- Яков Полонский – Братья
- Яков Полонский – Блажен озлобленный поэт
- Яков Полонский – Белая ночь
- Яков Полонский – А. Н. Майкову (ответ на стихи его: Полонский! Суждено опять судьбою злою)
- Яков Полонский – Последний вздох
- Яков Полонский – После праздника
- Яков Полонский – Полонский здесь не без привета
- Яков Полонский – Поэт и гражданин, он призван был учить
- Яков Полонский – Подойди ко мне, старушка
- Яков Полонский – Поцелуй
- Яков Полонский – По горам две хмурых тучи
- Яков Полонский – Письмо
- Яков Полонский – Песня циганки
- Яков Полонский – Памяти В. М. Гаршина
- Яков Полонский – Памяти С. Я. Надсона
- Яков Полонский – Откуда
- Яков Полонский – Орел и голубка
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
