A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)
1.
Sex, as they harshly call it,
I fell into this morning
at ten o’clock, a drizzling hour
of traffic and wet newspapers.
I thought of him who yesterday
clearly didn’t
turn me to a hot field
ready for plowing,
and longing for that young man
pierced me to the roots
bathing every vein, etc.
All day he appears to me
touchingly desirable,
a prize one could wreck one’s peace for.
I’d call it love if love
didn’t take so many years
but lust too is a jewel
a sweet flower and what
pure happiness to know
all our high-toned questions
breed in a lively animal.
2.
That “old last act”!
And yet sometimes
all seems post coitum triste
and I a mere bystander.
Somebody else is going off,
getting shot to the moon.
Or a moon-race!
Split seconds after
my opposite number lands
I make it–
we lie fainting together
at a crater-edge
heavy as mercury in our moonsuits
till he speaks–
in a different language
yet one I’ve picked up
through cultural exchanges…
we murmur the first moonwords:
Spasibo. Thanks. O.K.
A few random poems:
- Алишер Навои – У пери — точка вместо уст
- Владимир Высоцкий – О знаках Зодиака
- Алексей Толстой – С тех пор как я один
- Far In a Western Brookland poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Нина Воронель – Ломбардная баллада
- Here’s to the Mice! by Vachel Lindsay
- Our Be’thplace by William Barnes
- Николай Заболоцкий – Кулак, владыка батраков
- Николай Тихонов – Длинный путь
- The Mob
- Gertrude of Wyoming by Thomas Campbell
- Reason Use It Divine Matters
- Robert Burns: The Rigs O’ Barley:
- A Child Of God Longing To See Him Beloved by William Cowper
- The Road To Ruin 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
- Robert Burns: The Epitaph:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On Captain Matthew Henderson: A Gentleman who held the Patent for his Honours immediately from Almighty God.
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad: At the close of the contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790. Addressed to R. Graham, Esq. of Fintry.
- Robert Burns: Gudewife, Count The Lawin:
- Robert Burns: I Murder Hate:
- Robert Burns: The Gowden Locks Of Anna:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On Willie Nicol’s Mare:
- Robert Burns: Lines To A Gentleman,: Who had sent the Poet a Newspaper, and offered to continue it free of Expense.
- Robert Burns: Scots’ Prologue For Mr. Sutherland: On his Benefit-Night, at the Theatre, Dumfries.
- Robert Burns: Sketch -New Year’s Day [1790]: To Mrs. Dunlop.
- Robert Burns: Prologue Spoken At The Theatre Of Dumfries: On New Year’s Day Evening, 1790.
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad For Westerha’:
- Robert Burns: The Five Carlins: An Election Ballad
- Robert Burns: Epistle To Dr. Blacklock: Ellisland, 21st Oct., 1789
- Robert Burns: To Mary In Heaven:
- Robert Burns: The Whistle -A Ballad:
- Robert Burns: My Heart’s In The Highlands:
- Robert Burns: The Captive Ribband:
- Robert Burns: A Waukrife Minnie:
- Robert Burns: Awa’ Whigs, Awa’:
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.