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:
- Doom’s Day by Satish Verma
- Untitled by Quincy Troupe
- On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- The Babysitters by Sylvia Plath
- Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: The Menagerie
- Conviction (iii) by Stevie Smith
- Nutting by William Wordsworth
- The Bonnie House O’ Airly poem – Andrew Lang poems
- The Labyrinth by W H Auden
- Most Precious by R. L. Karlowsky
- Sculpture of Debris on the Waterfront by Martina Reisz Newberry
- O What Is That Sound by W H Auden
- Николай Заболоцкий – Царица мух
- The Second Voyage by Rudyard Kipling
- Николай Заболоцкий – Гурзуф ночью
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
- Considering The Snail by Thom Gunn
- Broken Love by Talha Jafri
- Black Market Love by Taisha Destin
- Attention please! Attention please! by Roald Dahl
- An Act of Faith by Talha Jafri
- After Years by Ted Kooser
- Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower by Taha Muhammad Ali
- A Ghost in the Shell by Talha Jafri
- 10 Things I Do Every Day by Ted Berrigan
- Zermatt To The Matterhorn. by Thomas Hardy
- A Woman’s Fancy by Thomas Hardy
- The Woman In The Rye by Thomas Hardy
- A Week by Thomas Hardy
- The Year’s Awakening by Thomas Hardy
- The Workbox by Thomas Hardy
- The Wistful Lady by Thomas Hardy
- The Puzzled Game-Birds by Thomas Hardy
- A Spot by Thomas Hardy
- A Sign-Seeker by Thomas Hardy
- “The Curtains Now Are Drawn” by Thomas Hardy
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