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 MOSAIC by Satish Verma
- Иван Барков – Торжественным воротам
- Butterflies by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Луговской – Гуниб
- Михаил Ломоносов – День коронования Великия государыни императрицы Елисаветы Петровны
- Hex by Rachel McKibbens
- Владимир Маяковский – Октябрь 1917–1926
- I’ve dreamt of dreaming ’bout you by Vinko Kalinić
- Иван Бунин – Богиня
- Владимир Маяковский – За четыре года советской власти… (Главполитпросвет №248)
- Edom O’ Gordon poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq. by Robert Burns
- On An Ugly Fellow (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Start Growing by Rixa White
- The Sun Was Slumbering in the West by Thomas Hood
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
- Forex Trading Strategies – Divining the Mysteries of Candlestick Charts and Patterns
- Numbers and the Bible
- Quality Customer Service – How to Measure Customer Satisfaction
- Ethiopia – Lalibela
- Different World Views of Art
- Distributive Trade II – The Wholesaler
- 12 Surefire Brainstorming Techniques
- Factors Affecting the Labor Market – Determination of Wages and The Activities of Trade Unions
- How To Achieve Self-Realization, The Mother of All Knowledge?
- The Cosmic Eggs
- What Are Solar Roofing Shingles?
- Howard Stern’s Wine
- Style Ideas For Vests For Women
- A Life Of Lorenzo Da Ponte:Talent Flies; Practical Reason Walks
- How to Make Money Online Writing and Selling eBooks
- Cinema Therapy and The MovieMaking Process
- God’s Work Ethics
- Article Writing – Revealed – 4 Priceless Methods to Make Money Through Article Writing
- 71 Ways For A Writer To Make Money
- Secrets of Academic Success: Passion
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.