A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
Far back when I went zig-zagging
through tamarack pastures
you were my genius, you
my cast-iron Viking, my helmed
lion-heart king in prison.
Years later now you’re young
my fierce half-brother, staring
down from that simplified west
your breast open, your belt dragged down
by an oldfashioned thing, a sword
the last bravado you won’t give over
though it weighs you down as you stride
and the stars in it are dim
and maybe have stopped burning.
But you burn, and I know it;
as I throw back my head to take you in
and old transfusion happens again:
divine astronomy is nothing to it.
Indoors I bruise and blunder
break faith, leave ill enough
alone, a dead child born in the dark.
Night cracks up over the chimney,
pieces of time, frozen geodes
come showering down in the grate.
A man reaches behind my eyes
and finds them empty
a woman’s head turns away
from my head in the mirror
children are dying my death
and eating crumbs of my life.
Pity is not your forte.
Calmly you ache up there
pinned aloft in your crow’s nest,
my speechless pirate!
You take it all for granted
and when I look you back
it’s with a starlike eye
shooting its cold and egotistical spear
where it can do least damage.
Breath deep! No hurt, no pardon
out here in the cold with you
you with your back to the wall.
A few random poems:
- The Coach Of Life poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Валерий Брюсов – И снова давние картины
- To My Lord Fairfax poem – John Milton poems
- The Pulling Away by Timothy Cole
- Ольга Берггольц – Мы предчувствовали полыханье
- The Bagpipe Who Didn’t Say No by Shel Silverstein
- Sonnet CXXXI by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Маяковский – Два гренадера и один адмирал
- Song of the Red War-Boat by Rudyard Kipling
- Faery Songs poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Языков – А. И. Готовцевой (Влюблен я, дева-красота)
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нынче мне не до улыбок
- the_morning_walk.html
- Владимир Высоцкий – На Филиппинах бархатный сезон
- Violet Beauregarde… by Roald Dahl
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
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty? poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- To Seem The Stranger Lies My Lot, My Life poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- To R. B. poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- To His Watch poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- To Him Who Ever Thought with Love of Me poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- To a Young Child poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Thee, God, I Come from poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Wreck Of The Deutschland poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Woodlark poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Times Are Nightfall poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Starlight Night poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Soldier poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Silver Jubilee poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Shepherd’s Brow, Fronting Forked Lightning, Owns poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Sea Took Pity poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Sea And The Skylark poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The May Magnificat poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Loss Of The Eurydice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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.