by Ai
We smile at each other
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don’t tell me, I say. I don’t want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that’s where I’m floating,
and that’s what it’s like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?
A few random poems:
- The Progress of Poesy by Thomas Gray
- Федор Сваровский – Об удивительном
- Robert Burns: Man Was Made To Mourn: A Dirge:
- Outside The Village Church poem – Alfred Austin
- The Buddhist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Маяковский – Универсальный ответ
- Duns Scotus’s Oxford poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Юрий Верховский – Как раненый олень кидается в поток
- Dane-Geld by Rudyard Kipling
- Яков Полонский – Письмо
- At The Close Of The Canvass poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Survivor by Roger McGough
- A Grace after Dinner by Robert Burns
- Казалось, осталось недолго
- Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
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
- Владимир Костров – В керосиновой лампе
- Владимир Костров – Утро в Заборье
- Владимир Костров – У них в делах анархия и жуть
- Владимир Костров – То в ночи она вспыхнет, как спичка
- Владимир Костров – Сверстницам
- Владимир Костров – Старый сюжет
- Владимир Костров – Срок настал, московская богема
- Владимир Костров – Смуту и безверье не приемль
- Владимир Костров – Романс
- Владимир Костров – Просыпаюсь от сердечной боли
- Владимир Костров – Поток ушедших лет
- Владимир Костров – Поплачь, любимая, поплачь
- Владимир Костров – Полон взгляд тихой боли и страха
- Владимир Костров – Поэтессе
- Владимир Костров – Письмо в никуда
- Владимир Костров – Памяти Николая Анциферова
- Владимир Костров – Отшумели сады, отзвенела вода
- Владимир Костров – Новогодняя ночь
- Владимир Костров – Не трогайте жанр
- Владимир Костров – Не банкира, не детей Арбата
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
