To Frank O’Hara
Sometimes when my eyes are red
I go up on top of the RCA Building
and gaze at my world, Manhattan-
my buildings, streets I’ve done feats in,
lofts, beds, coldwater flats
-on Fifth Ave below which I also bear in mind,
its ant cars, little yellow taxis, men
walking the size of specks of wool-
Panorama of the bridges, sunrise over Brooklyn machine,
sun go down over New Jersey where I was born
& Paterson where I played with ants-
my later loves on 15th Street,
my greater loves of Lower East Side,
my once fabulous amours in the Bronx
faraway-
paths crossing in these hidden streets,
my history summed up, my absences
and ecstasies in Harlem-
-sun shining down on all I own
in one eyeblink to the horizon
in my last eternity-
matter is water.
Sad,
I take the elevator and go
down, pondering,
and walk on the pavements staring into all man’s
plateglass, faces,
questioning after who loves,
and stop, bemused
in front of an automobile shopwindow
standing lost in calm thought,
traffic moving up & down 5th Avenue blocks behind me
waiting for a moment when …
Time to go home & cook supper & listen to
the romantic war news on the radio
… all movement stops
& I walk in the timeless sadness of existence,
tenderness flowing thru the buildings,
my fingertips touching reality’s face,
my own face streaked with tears in the mirror
of some window-at dusk-
where I have no desire-
for bonbons-or to own the dresses or Japanese
lampshades of intellection-
Confused by the spectacle around me,
Man struggling up the street
with packages, newspapers,
ties, beautiful suits
toward his desire
Man, woman, streaming over the pavements
red lights clocking hurried watches &
movements at the curb-
And all these streets leading
so crosswise, honking, lengthily,
by avenues
stalked by high buildings or crusted into slums
thru such halting traffic
screaming cars and engines
so painfully to this
countryside, this graveyard
this stillness
on deathbed or mountain
once seen
never regained or desired
in the mind to come
where all Manhattan that I’ve seen must disappear.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Луговской – Алайский рынок
- Валерий Брюсов – Пиршество войны
- He is more than a hero by Sappho
- The Frivolity of Dreaming by Mahi Chauhan
- … and the moon was sleeping by Steve Troyanovich
- The Encounter poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Live Baits by Satish Verma
- Владимир Британишский – В годы войны
- Robert Burns: Epigram To Miss Jean Scott:
- Lover’s Gifts LIV: In the Beginning of Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Night Of Battle by Yvor Winters
- ALL THINGS DECAY AND DIE by Robert Herrick
- Celebrity Style Of The Week: Gabriel Akinosho
- Blue eyes by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Николай Карамзин – К Дмитриеву (Многие барды, лиру настроив)
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
- Andromeda poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To Pray poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- No Worst, There Is None. Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- My prayers must meet a brazen heaven poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- My Own Heart Let Me Have More Have Pity On; Let poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Moonrise poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Moonless darkness stands between poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- May Magnificat poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Love Preparing to Fly poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Let me be to Thee as the circling bird poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Inversnaid poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- In The Valley Of The Elwy poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Hurrahing In Harvest poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Hope Holds to Christ poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Henry Purcell poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Heaven–Haven: A Nun Takes The Veil poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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