by Alan Noakes
Yes the ‘if onlys’ seem to persist for ever
As hovering wraithlike used-up dreams.
‘if only ‘ this or that
On such and such a day
Had varied by an hour or an inch
Or something neglected had been done
Or that something done had been neglected
Then ‘perhaps’ the other might have been:
But then
‘perhaps’ and ‘if only’ are first cousins
Addicted to survival only in our minds.
Copyright ©:
Alan Noakes

A few random poems:
- Владимир Степанов – Робот (Буква Р)
- Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will by William Shakespeare
- Алексей Толстой – Три побоища
- The Example by William Henry Davies
- Cult of Lynching by Satish Verma
- Comments: A Life Well Lived is Always an Inspiration – My Friend Muniappan Velu of Chennai, India
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Epistle 1 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Empty Boats by Vachel Lindsay
- Grandeur Of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Last Wolf by Mary TallMountain
- Аля Кудряшева – Молитва
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти В. Башкина
- Юнна Мориц – Хорошо быть молодым
- Forgiveness by Zaklina (Jacqueline) Filipova- Svekjarovska
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
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- Life by Marvin Bell
- Farmers Market by Mary TallMountain
- Let Him Free by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Eternal Existence by Mark Miller
- Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
- Et Le Marbre Creuse… by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Important thing’s in life by Martin Smith
- Images by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Illusions by Mark R Slaughter
- If Only by Mary Etta Metcalf
- I, or Someone Like Me by Marvin Bell
- He Said To by Marvin Bell
- Grumpy Old Man by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Giving Myself Up by Mark Strand
- Ghosts by Martina Reisz Newberry
- From The Long Sad Party by Mark Strand
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- Farmers Market by Mary TallMountain
- Eternal Existence by Mark Miller
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