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:
- Жан Расин – Гофолия
- The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore
- A Farewell To Youth poem – Alfred Austin
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1791 by William Cowper
- Epitaph on a Henpecked Squire by Robert Burns
- Subject to Change by Marilyn L. Taylor
- Tracks In The Private Country
- On Invalids (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- You by Thonda Sri Indrani
- Алексей Жемчужников – Забудь их шумное волненье
- Outsong in the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- Spring – The First Pastoral ; or Damon poem – Alexander Pope
- A Walk After Dark by W H Auden
- Илья Зданевич – Галоша
- When I peruse the Conquer’d Fame. by Walt Whitman
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
- Sonnet 08 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 07 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 06 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 05 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 04 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03: Canzone poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 01 poem – John Milton poems
- Song On May Morning poem – John Milton poems
- Samson Agonistes poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 88 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 87 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 86 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 85 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 84 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 83 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 82 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 81 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 80 poem – John Milton 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.