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:
- The Given Heart
- The People by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Маяковский – Театры
- A Faery’s Lament poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Dark spring by Yvor Winters
- Николай Карамзин – Любовь и дружба
- Big Grab by Tony Hoagland
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимн взятке
- Pioneers! O Pioneers! by Walt Whitman
- Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Ballade Of Queen Anne poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Олег Бундур – Бабушка под зонтиком
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Барак ночью
- Robert Burns: Twas Na Her Bonie Blue E’e:
- The Wedding Night by Mukeshkumar Raval
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 Ступкин – Тоска
- Владимир Маринин – К нам тётя соседка заходит на чай
- Владимир Макуров – Бумажный самолёт
- Владимир Луговской – Звезда (Я знаю ты любишь меня)
- Владимир Луговской – Жестокое пробужденье
- Владимир Луговской – Ты руку на голову мне положила
- Владимир Луговской – Та, которую я знал
- Владимир Луговской – Спасибо
- Владимир Луговской – Севастополь
- Владимир Луговской – Радость
- Владимир Луговской – Повелитель бумаги
- Владимир Луговской – Почтовый переулок
- Владимир Луговской – Пила
- Владимир Луговской – Первый снег
- Владимир Луговской – Пепел
- Владимир Луговской – Остролистник
- Владимир Луговской – Обращение
- Владимир Луговской – Ночной патруль
- Владимир Луговской – Мертвый хватает живого
- Владимир Луговской – Мальчики играют на горе
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.