St. Roach
by Muriel Rukeyser
For that I never knew you, I only learned to dread you,
for that I never touched you, they told me you are filth,
they showed me by every action to despise your kind;
for that I saw my people making war on you,
I could not tell you apart, one from another,
for that in childhood I lived in places clear of you,
for that all the people I knew met you by
crushing you, stamping you to death, they poured boiling
water on you, they flushed you down,
for that I could not tell one from another
only that you were dark, fast on your feet, and slender.
Not like me.
For that I did not know your poems
And that I do not know any of your sayings
And that I cannot speak or read your language
And that I do not sing your songs
And that I do not teach our children
to eat your food
or know your poems
or sing your songs
But that we say you are filthing our food
But that we know you not at all.
Yesterday I looked at one of you for the first time.
You were lighter that the others in color, that was
neither good nor bad.
I was really looking for the first time.
You seemed troubled and witty.
Today I touched one of you for the first time.
You were startled, you ran, you fled away
Fast as a dancer, light, strange, and lovely to the touch.
I reach, I touch, I begin to know you.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Жан де Лафонтен – Третейский Судья, Брат милосердия и Пустынник
- A Faery Song by William Butler Yeats
- Female ghost in the moonlight by Raj Arumugam
- One Year by Sharon Olds
- Михаил Лермонтов – Зови надежду сновиденьем
- Sub Mare poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Владимир Степанов – Гусь и цыплёнок
- Philip Levine – Philip Levine
- Before The Game by Vasko Popa
- The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet
- The Song Maker by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Набоков – Большая медведица
- It Is a Beauteous Evening by William Wordsworth
- Dissolve in kisses, I would like to dissolve in your kisses
- Siege Of Vienna Raised By Jihn Sobieski by William Wordsworth
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).