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:
- Medallion by Sylvia Plath
- English Literature for Shaping Your Ideas
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сколько павших бойцов полегло вдоль дорог
- Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends by William Shakespeare
- Presentiment poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- O Living Always—Always Dying. by Walt Whitman
- Alone poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Christmas Star by Walter William Safar
- Владимир Маяковский – Успокоилась Франция, злобой не пышет… (РОСТА №625)
- The Linden On The Lawn by William Barnes
- Robert Burns: Bonie Dundee:
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 15. To-night the winds begin to rise poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Dug-Out by Siegfried Sassoon
- Николай Гербель – В дорогу
- Шекспир – Разлука сердце делит пополам – Сонет 39
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
- Аля Кудряшева – Если ты, к примеру, кролик с шелковистыми ушами
- Аля Кудряшева – Двадцать перышек за плечами
- Аля Кудряшева – Дождь напевает, искрясь по зарослям
- Алишер Навои – Уже белеет голова
- Алишер Навои – Украсишь ты свой наряд красным
- Алишер Навои – У пери — точка вместо уст
- Алишер Навои – То не заросли тюльпанов
- Алишер Навои – Сверкнула в темноте ночной краса
- Алишер Навои – Стихотворные жемчужины
- Алишер Навои – Соловей, лишенный розы, умолкает, не поет
- Алишер Навои – Словно зеркало, сияет лик твой
- Алишер Навои – Скиталец горький, страсть таю я
- Алишер Навои – Сердце взял мое сын мага
- Алишер Навои – Сердце кровью из ран обагрить я сумел
- Алишер Навои – Пустословя на минбаре
- Алишер Навои – Птицу-сердце полонила нежных локонов силком
- Алишер Навои – Поучительные заветы старости
- Алишер Навои – Осрамился я
- Алишер Навои – Он любить мне запрещает
- Алишер Навои – О таинствах любви
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.