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:
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 7. Dark house, by which once more I s poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Owl by Ted Hughes
- Ballade Made In The Hot Weather by William Ernest Henley
- Mary Morison by Robert Burns
- Федор Сологуб – Вильгельм второй
- Song IX: Ho Ye Who Seek Saving by William Morris
- Алишер Навои – Уже белеет голова
- Михаил Кузмин – Звезда Афродиты
- Владимир Маяковский – Пятый интернационал
- Юлия Друнина – Большой ребёнок ты
- Гавриил Державин – На умеренность
- In an Effort to Translate Solitude poem – Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Farewell poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Maid Vor My Bride by William Barnes
- Do not be ashamed by Wendell Berry
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 Exeter Road poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The End poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Cyclists poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Cross-Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Crescent Moon poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Captured Goddess poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Bungler poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Boston Athenaeum poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Bombardment poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Blue Scarf poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Basket poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Teatro Bambino. Dublin, N. H. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sword Blades and Poppy Seed poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell 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
Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012) was an American poet, essayist, and feminist.