Victory

A poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929 – 2012)

 

Something spreading underground won’t speak to us

under skin won’t declare itself

not all life-forms want dialogue with the

machine-gods in their drama hogging down

the deep bush clear-cutting refugees

from ancient or transient villages into

our opportunistic fervor to search

crazily for a host a lifeboat

 

Suddenly instead of art we’re eyeing

organisms traced and stained on cathedral transparencies

cruel blues embroidered purples succinct yellows

a beautiful tumor

 

•

 

I guess you’re not alone I fear you’re alone

There’s, of course, poetry:

awful bridge rising over naked air: I first

took it as just a continuation of the road:

“a masterpiece of engineering

praised, etc.” then on the radio:

“incline too steep for ease of, etc.”

Drove it nonetheless because I had to

this being how— So this is how

I find you: alive and more

 

•

 

As if (how many conditionals must we suffer?)

I’m driving to your side

—an intimate collusion—

packed in the trunk my bag of foils for fencing with pain

glasses of varying spectrum for sun or fog or sun-struck

rain or bitterest night my sack of hidden

poetries, old glue shredding from their spines

 

my time exposure of the Leonids

over Joshua Tree

 

As if we’re going to win this O because

 

•

 

If you have a sister I am not she

nor your mother nor you my daughter

nor are we lovers or any kind of couple

except in the intensive care

of poetry and

death’s master plan architecture-in-progress

draft elevations of a black-and-white mosaic dome

the master left on your doorstep

with a white card in black calligraphy:

Make what you will of this

As if leaving purple roses

 

•

 

If (how many conditionals must we suffer?)

I tell you a letter from the master

is lying on my own doorstep

glued there with leaves and rain

and I haven’t bent to it yet

if I tell you I surmise

he writes differently to me:

 

Do as you will, you have had your life

many have not

 

signing it in his olden script:

 

Meister aus Deutschland

 

•

 

In coldest Europe end of that war

frozen domes iron railings frozen stoves lit in the

streets

memory banks of cold

 

the Nike of Samothrace

on a staircase wings in blazing

backdraft said to me

: : to everyone she met

Displaced, amputated never discount me

 

Victory

indented in disaster striding

at the head of stairs

 

for Tory Dent

 

 

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Poems in English

 

• Валерий Брюсов – После ночи бессонной by Валерий Брюсов
• Валерий Брюсов – Я жизнью пьян. Напиток жгучий by Валерий Брюсов
• Василий Каменский – Из Симеиза в Алупку by Василий Каменский
• Василий Казин – Письмо by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Ожидание by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Ну, тебя ль, далекая by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Не потому ль к любви вселенской by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – На могиле матери by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Мой отец простой водопроводчик by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Кирилл и Мефодий by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Каменщик by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Гармонист by Василий Казин
• Василий Казин – Эпоха by Василий Казин
• Василий Кубанёв – 12 июля by Василий Кубанёв
• Василий Курочкин – Юмористическим чутьем by Василий Kурочкин
• Василий Курочкин – Старая песня by Василий Kурочкин
• Василий Курочкин – Счастливец by Василий Kурочкин
• Василий Курочкин – Раздумье by Василий Kурочкин
• Василий Курочкин – Поэту адвокату by Василий Kурочкин
• Василий Курочкин – Ни в мать, ни в отца by Василий Kурочкин

 

More external links (open in a new tab):

 

Russian Commerce Agency

 

Dealing Monster

 

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.

 

 

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