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 Letters poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Moment I knew my Life had Changed by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
- Николай Заболоцкий – Змеи
- Against Hope
- Robert Burns: The Keekin’-Glass:
- Now Hollow Fires Burn Out to Black poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Concert Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Дорога, дорога, счёта нет шагам
- Николай Заболоцкий – Сказка о кривом человечке
- heal_me_slowly.html
- Михаил Лермонтов – Благодарность
- The Drowned Man poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Robert Burns: On An Innkeeper Nicknamed “The Marquis”:
- Вера Звягинцева – Качаешься в гробу стеклянном
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
- Erin, Oh Erin by Thomas Moore
- Enigma by Thomas Moore
- Echo by Thomas Moore
- Drink To Her by Thomas Moore
- Drink of This Cup by Thomas Moore
- Did Not by Thomas Moore
- Dialogue Between a Sovereign and a One-Pound Note by Thomas Moore
- Desmond’s Song by Thomas Moore
- Dear Harp of my Country by Thomas Moore
- Cotton and Corn by Thomas Moore
- Come, Send Round the Wine by Thomas Moore
- Come, Rest in this Bosom by Thomas Moore
- Come O’er the Sea by Thomas Moore
- By That Lake, Whose Gloomy Shore by Thomas Moore
- Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms by Thomas Moore
- Befire the Battle by Thomas Moore
- Avenging and Bright by Thomas Moore
- At the Mid Hour of Night by Thomas Moore
- As Vanquish’d Erin by Thomas Moore
- As Slow Our Ship by Thomas Moore
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