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:
- Федор Сологуб – Слышу голос милой
- Владимир Высоцкий – Говорят, лезу прямо под нож
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope
- A Child Of War
- Logos poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- They Feed They Lion by Philip Levine
- Георгий Иванов – Там, над Невой зеленоватой
- Zunsheen In The Winter by William Barnes
- In The Night by Stevie Smith
- Francis II, King of Naples poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- English Poetry. Charles Wesley. Hark! A Voice Divides the Sky. Чарльз Уэсли.
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. In the Forest. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- Gathering Leaves by Robert Frost
- Books And Thoughts poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Death Of Captain Cooke, by William Lisle Bowles
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
- Grass is a taut crew; poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
- Goddess poem – Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi poems | Poems and Poetry
- Freedom poem – Aminu Ola Rasaq poems | Poems and Poetry
- Dyer Died In Silence poem – Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson poems | Poems and Poetry
- Compassion poem – Amey Deshpande poems | Poems and Poetry
- Beachy Blues poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
- Among hills Apache red poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
- A song of living poem – Amelia Burr poems | Poems and Poetry
- A dream is a butterfly poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ode to Wine
- On The Wedding Of The Aeronaut poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- To E.S. Salomon poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Valley Of Dry Bones poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Passing Show poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The New Decalogue poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Mad Philosopher poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Legatee poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Key Note poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Hesitating Veteran poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Death Of Grant poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
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