A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
When the ice starts to shiver
all across the reflecting basin
or water-lily leaves
dissect a simple surface
the word ‘drowning’ flows through me.
You built a glassy floor
that held me
as I leaned to fish for old
hooks and toothed tin cans,
stems lashing out like ties of
silk dressing-gowns
archangels of lake-light
gripped in mud.
Now you hand me a torn letter.
On my knees, in the ashes, I could never
fit these ripped-up flakes together.
In the taxi I am still piecing
what syllables I can
translating at top speed like a thinking machine
that types out ‘useless’ as ‘monster’
and ‘history’ as ‘lampshade’.
Crossing the bridge I need all my nerve
to trust to the man-made cables.
The blades on that machine
could cut you to ribbons
but its function is humane.
Is this all I can say of these
delicate books, scythe-curved intentions
you and I handle? I’d rather
taste blood, yours or mine, flowing
from a sudden slash, than cut all day
with blunt scissors on dotted lines
like the teacher told.
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: My Father Was A Farmer:
- Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? by Thomas Hardy
- Bards of Passion and of Mirth, written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher’s Tragi-Comedy ‘The Fair Maid of the Inn’ poem – John Keats poems
- Омар Хайям – Кто не грешит?
- Summer Stillness poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Высоцкий – Не дыми, голова трещит
- Dilton Marsh Halt poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Talk Of Him That’s Far Awa:
- Maenad by Sylvia Plath
- The Tree Of Song by Sara Teasdale
- Вера Павлова – Я дождевой червь
- Insomniac by Sylvia Plath
- Вероника Тушнова – Тень
- Алексей Плещеев – По чувствам братья мы с тобой
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про первые ряды
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
- The Higher Pantheism poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Grandmother poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Garden poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Flower poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Eagle poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Deserted House poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Brook poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Tears, Idle Tears poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sweet And Low poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- St. Agnes’ Eve poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Spring poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sir Galahad poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sea Dreams poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Requiescat poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Recollection of the Arabian Nights poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Princess: A Medley: The splendour falls on castle walls poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Pelleas And Ettarre poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Of Old Sat Freedom on the Heights poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Of Old Sat Freedom poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson 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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.