Author: Joseph Brodsky

A list of some observation. In a corner, it’s warm. A glance leaves an imprint on anything it’s dwelt on. […]

All the huskies are eaten. There is no space Left in the diary, And the beads of quick Words scatter […]

Citizen, enemy, mama’s boy, sucker, utter Garbage, panhandler, swine, refujew, verrucht; A scalp so often scalded with boiling water That […]

There is a meadow in Sweden Where I lie smitten, Eyes stained with clouds’ White ins and outs. And about […]

Here’s a girl from a dangerous town She crops her dark hair short so that less of her has to […]

I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages, Carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters, Lived […]

It’s not that the Muse feels like clamming up, It’s more like high time for the lad’s last nap. And […]

…and when “the future” is uttered, swarms of mice Rush out of the Russian language and gnaw a piece Of […]

I was but what you’d brush With your palm, what your leaning Brow would hunch to in evening’s Raven-black hush. […]

I threw my arms about those shoulders, glancing At what emerged behind that back, And saw a chair pushed slightly […]

I said fate plays a game without a score, And who needs fish if you’ve got caviar? The triumph of […]

The stone-built villages of England. A cathedral bottled in a pub window. Cows dispersed across fields. Monuments to kings. A […]

The perilous yellow sun follows with its slant eyes Masts of the shuddered grove steaming up to capsize In the […]

A hotel in whose ledgers departures are more prominent than arrivals. With wet Koh-i-noors the October rain Strokes what’s left […]

Everything has its limit, including sorrow. A windowpane stalls a stare. Nor does a grill abandon A leaf. One may […]

As though the mercury’s under its tongue, it won’t Talk. As though with the mercury in its sphincter, Immobile, by […]