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:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мажорный светофор, трёхцветье, трио
- The Princess: A Medley: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- When I am asleep and crumbling in the tomb by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- A Shakespeare Memorial poem – Alfred Austin
- Владислав Крапивин – Когда тебя замучил враг
- Love
- Василий Жуковский – Дружба
- Envoi poem – Ezra Pound poems
- the-infernal-regions.html
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На море
- In the Home Stretch by Robert Frost
- To A Feminist
- Robert Burns: The Cooper O’ Cuddy:
- A Meditation In Time Of War by William Butler Yeats
- haiku
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
- Юрий Верховский – Месяцу, заре, звезде, лазури
- Юрий Верховский – Как раненый олень кидается в поток
- Юрий Верховский – Есть имена, таинственны и стары
- Юрий Верховский – Ах, душечка моя, как нынче мне светло
- Жан де Лафонтен – Язычник и деревянный Идол
- Жан де Лафонтен – Врачи
- Жан де Лафонтен – Воля и Неволя
- Жан де Лафонтен – Волк, Мать и Ребенок
- Жан де Лафонтен – Волк и Лисица на суде перед Обезьяной
- Жан де Лафонтен – Волк и Конь
- Жан де Лафонтен – Война Крыс и Ласок
- Жан де Лафонтен – Виноградник и Олень
- Жан де Лафонтен – Утопленница
- Жан де Лафонтен – Третейский Судья, Брат милосердия и Пустынник
- Жан де Лафонтен – Старый Кот и Мышонок
- Жан де Лафонтен – Ссора Собак с Кошками и Кошек с Мышами
- Жан де Лафонтен – Совет Мышей
- Жан де Лафонтен – Смерть и Несчастный
- Жан де Лафонтен – Скупой, потерявший свое богатство
- Жан де Лафонтен – Шершни и Пчелы
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.