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:
- Westgate-On-Sea poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Mortal One by Sharon Olds
- Flamenco Flamingo by Ross D Tyler
- Address To Kilchurn Castle, Upon Loch Awe by William Wordsworth
- The Rabbit Catcher by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Маяковский – Со страхом и трепетом открывали газету… (РОСТА №705)
- The Seeing Eye poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Стефан Малларме – Отходит кружево опять
- On The Death Of Rev. Mr. George Whitefield by Phillis Wheatley
- Event by Sylvia Plath
- A Sleepless Night by Philip Levine
- The Chambermaid’s First Song by William Butler Yeats
- Lines of John M’Murdo by Robert Burns
- “Behold Vale! I Said, When I Shall Con” by William Wordsworth
- Race of Veterans. 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
- Владимир Набоков – Стансы (Ничем не смоешь подписи косой)
- Владимир Набоков – Спроси у хрустальной луны
- Владимир Набоков – Скитальцы
- Владимир Набоков – Шахматный конь
- Владимир Набоков – Санкт-Петербург
- Владимир Набоков – Расстрел
- Владимир Набоков – Путь
- Владимир Набоков – Пускай все горестней и глуше
- Владимир Набоков – Простая песня, грусть простая
- Владимир Набоков – Поэт
- Владимир Набоков – Памяти друга
- Владимир Набоков – Осень
- Владимир Набоков – О, любовь, ты светла и крылата
- Владимир Набоков – О чем я думаю
- Владимир Набоков – На сельском кладбище
- Владимир Набоков – Мечтал я о тебе так часто
- Владимир Набоков – Лыжный прыжок
- Владимир Набоков – Кубы
- Владимир Набоков – Кинематораф
- Владимир Набоков – Какое сделал я дурное дело
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