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:
- The Gladness of Nature by William Cullen Bryant
- Oh Stay At Home, My Lad poem – A. E. Housman
- The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Высоцкий – Нам вчера прислали из рук вон плохую весть
- Джон Донн – Я весь боренье, на беду мою
- To J. S. poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling
- Poem Stories
- Владимир Высоцкий – В белье плотной вязки
- Subjective Genocide by Marie Starr
- Conviction (iv) by Stevie Smith
- A Cure At Porlock poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Messiah : A Sacred Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Sleep of the Body the Soul’s Awakening by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- It is the Muses by Sappho
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
- Muhammad by Mahmoud Darwish
- Lulu by Manolo Arriola
- Khanaa’s Song by Mallika Sengupta
- In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish
- If Old Men Fought by Mac McGovern
- Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish
- I Didn’t Apologize to the Well by Mahmoud Darwish
- I Come From There by Mahmoud Darwish
- I Belong There by Mahmoud Darwish
- I Am There by Mahmoud Darwish
- I Want To Write by Margaret Walker
- Hora Cero by Manolo Arriola
- Heaven, an envious home by Mahak Raithatha S
- He Is Calm, and I Am Too by Mahmoud Darwish
- Hate Survives by Mac McGovern
- Halloween by Mac Hammond
- Frijolita by Manolo Arriola
- FREEDOM by Mac McGovern
- For Life and Death of a Poet by Marcin Malek
- FLORECER by Manolo Arriola
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