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 Queen
- Robert Burns: I Dream’d I Lay:
- Macer : A Character poem – Alexander Pope
- A Birthday Present poem – Alfred Austin
- Федор Сологуб – Скоро солнце встанет
- Then by Philip Levine
- Egotist poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Middle Age
- Владимир Высоцкий – Звезды
- Be’mi’ster by William Barnes
- Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service by T. S. Eliot
- Из головы у меня не выходишь
- The Ballad Of Father Gilligan by William Butler Yeats
- Youth And Age by William Butler Yeats
- [ I think I’m there? ] poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
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
- Алексей Толстой – Ушкуйник
- Алексей Толстой – Угораздило кофейник
- Алексей Толстой – Ты знаешь, я люблю
- Алексей Толстой – Ты жертва жизненных тревог
- Алексей Толстой – Ты почто, злая кручинушка
- Алексей Толстой – Ты не спрашивай, не распытывай
- Алексей Толстой – Ты любишь в нем лишь первую любовь
- Алексей Толстой – Три побоища
- Алексей Толстой – То было раннею весной
- Алексей Толстой – Темнота и туман застилают мне путь
- Алексей Толстой – Тебя так любят все
- Алексей Толстой – Сватовство
- Алексей Толстой – Стасюлевич и Маркевич
- Алексей Толстой – Средь шумного бала, случайно
- Алексей Толстой – Смеркалось, жаркий день бледнел неуловимо
- Алексей Толстой – Слова для мазурки
- Алексей Толстой – Слепой
- Алексей Толстой – Сижу да гляжу я всe, братцы, вон в эту сторонку
- Алексей Толстой – Шумит на дворе непогода
- Алексей Толстой – С тех пор как я один
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.