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:
- I did not want to stop you by Luz del Alba Nicola
- Sonnet III: Look In Thy Glass, and Tell the Face Thou Viewest by William Shakespeare
- Кондратий Рылеев – Оставь меня, Я здесь молю
- Ольга Берггольц – Огонь, и воду, и медные трубы
- Give Me Back My Rags #11 by Vasko Popa
- Николай Заболоцкий – Зеленый луч
- Ольга Седакова – Сновидец
- Michael Angelo In Reply To The Passage Upon His Staute Of Sleeping Night by William Wordsworth
- Epistle to a Young Friend by Robert Burns
- The Ballad Of Father O’Hart by William Butler Yeats
- Олег Григорьев – Мотылек
- Priorities of Life and Death
- The Recall by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мартовский Заяц
- Robert Burns: To Miss Ferrier: Enclosing the Elegy on Sir J. H. Blair.
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
- Poem of Joys. by Walt Whitman
- Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
- Here, Sailor. by Walt Whitman
- I Dream’d in a Dream. by Walt Whitman
- Turn, O Libertad. by Walt Whitman
- A Clear Midnight. by Walt Whitman
- Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? by Walt Whitman
- Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats. by Walt Whitman
- Soledad by Robert Hayden
- Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden
- Perseus by Robert Hayden
- O Daedalus, Fly Away Home by Robert Hayden
- Among the Multitude. by Walt Whitman
- American Feuillage. by Walt Whitman
- An Army Corps on the March. by Walt Whitman
- All is Truth. by Walt Whitman
- A Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman
- A Promise to California. by Walt Whitman
- After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman
- A Boston Ballad, 1854. by Walt Whitman
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