A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
the quality of being complete; unbroken condition; entirety
~ Webster
A wild patience has taken me this far
as if I had to bring to shore
a boat with a spasmodic outboard motor
old sweaters, nets, spray-mottled books
tossed in the prow
some kind of sun burning my shoulder-blades.
Splashing the oarlocks. Burning through.
Your fore-arms can get scalded, licked with pain
in a sun blotted like unspoken anger
behind a casual mist.
The length of daylight
this far north, in this
forty-ninth year of my life
is critical.
The light is critical: of me, of this
long-dreamed, involuntary landing
on the arm of an inland sea.
The glitter of the shoal
depleting into shadow
I recognize: the stand of pines
violet-black really, green in the old postcard
but really I have nothing but myself
to go by; nothing
stands in the realm of pure necessity
except what my hands can hold.
Nothing but myself?….My selves.
After so long, this answer.
As if I had always known
I steer the boat in, simply.
The motor dying on the pebbles
cicadas taking up the hum
dropped in the silence.
Anger and tenderness: my selves.
And now I can believe they breathe in me
as angels, not polarities.
Anger and tenderness: the spider’s genius
to spin and weave in the same action
from her own body, anywhere —
even from a broken web.
The cabin in the stand of pines
is still for sale. I know this. Know the print
of the last foot, the hand that slammed and locked the door,
then stopped to wreathe the rain-smashed clematis
back on the trellis
for no one’s sake except its own.
I know the chart nailed to the wallboards
the icy kettle squatting on the burner.
The hands that hammered in those nails
emptied that kettle one last time
are these two hands
and they have caught the baby leaping
from between trembling legs
and they have worked the vacuum aspirator
and stroked the sweated temples
and steered the boat there through this hot
misblotted sunlight, critical light
imperceptibly scalding
the skin these hands will also salve.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Корнилов – Беатриче
- Олег Карелин – Фото
- The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay
- Николай Языков – Пловец (Воют волны, скачут волны)
- Gem Immortality
- Sonet 51 by William Alexander
- Владимир Высоцкий – Марш студентов-физиков
- English Poetry. Charles Lockhart. Epistle to a Friend, with a Copy of Burns’s Letters. Чарльз Локкарт. Послание другу при возвращении ему томиков стихов Бернса
- English Poetry. David Herbert Lawrence. Whales Weep Not!. Дэвид Герберт Лоуренс.
- Chloris in the Snow by William Strode
- Robert Burns: Young Peggy Blooms:
- A quiet storm by Victor A. Bueno M.
- On Rabbi Kook’s Street by Yehuda Amichai
- Paradise Lost: Book 01 poem – John Milton poems
- Николай Некрасов – Я не люблю иронии твоей
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
- Олег Бундур – Полёт
- Олег Бундур – Под сосной
- Олег Бундур – Почему собаки дерутся
- Олег Бундур – Письмо от бабушки
- Олег Бундур – Певец Александр Серов
- Олег Бундур – Первый пирог
- Олег Бундур – Переселение
- Олег Бундур – Папино влияние
- Олег Бундур – Папа возмущается
- Олег Бундур – Папа собирается на рыбалку
- Олег Бундур – Папа пристал
- Олег Бундур – Папа и родительское собрание
- Олег Бундур – Орлан-белохвост
- Олег Бундур – Окошки
- Олег Бундур – Однажды на даче
- Олег Бундур – Обновки
- Олег Бундур – Неправильный кот
- Олег Бундур – Не ходите ночью
- Олег Бундур – Не верится
- Олег Бундур – Не боюсь
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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.