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 Praise Of Henna by Sarojini Naidu
- The Jingo and the Minstrel by Vachel Lindsay
- To Dorothy by Marvin Bell
- Two Hundred Years After by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Identification by Roger McGough
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. He Who Loves. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- A Grey Day by William Vaughn Moody
- Halloween by Robert Burns
- Владимир Высоцкий – Марш студентов-физиков
- Without You by Miraj Patel
- Come, My Beloved, Hear From Me by Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Message To America
- Song Of The Master And Boatswain by W H Auden
- Владимир Корнилов – Сорок лет спустя
- Ольга Берггольц – Лучший город
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
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Напрасные жертвы
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Напоминание
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Наездница
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На пятидесятилетний юбилей Крылова
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На море
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На гулянье
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Н. Ф. Щербине
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мысль
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мороз
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Монастыркам
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Молитва
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Могила в мансарде
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Могила
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мне были дороги мгновенья
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мелочи жизни
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Маша
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Маленькой Женни
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Люцерн
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Люблю тебя
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Любить
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.