A poem by Alan Dugan
As an American traveler I have
to remember not to get actionably mad
about the way things are around here.
Tomorrow I’ll be a thousand miles away
from the way it is around here. I will
keep my temper, I will not kill the dog
next door, nor will I kill the next-door wife,
both of whom are crazy and aggressive
and think they live at the center of culture
like everyone else in this college town.
This is because I’m leaving, I’m taking off
by car, by light plane, by jet, by taxicab,
for some place else a thousand miles away,
so I caution myself: control your rage,
even if it causes a slight heart attack.
Stay out of jail tonight before you leave,
and don’t get obstreperous in transit tomorrow
so as to stay out of jail on arrival tomorrow night.
Think: the new handcuffs are sharp inside
and meant to cut the wrists. You’re not too old
to be raped in their filthy overcrowded jails
and you’ll lose your glasses and false teeth.
How would you eat, study and be
a traveling lecturer if you got out alive and sane?
So remember to leave this place peacefully,
it’s only Asshole State University at Nowheresville,
and remember to get to the next place peacefully,
it’s only Nowhere State University at Assholesville
and you must travel from place to place for food and shelter.
A few random poems:
- When Bryan Speaks by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Степанов – Тула-город мастеров
- Imitations of Horace: The First Epistle of the Second Book poem – Alexander Pope
- A Poet! He Hath Put His Heart To School by William Wordsworth
- Hurting Dive by Satish Verma
- A Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти Н.И. Кульбина
- Олег Бундур – Я несу домой морошку
- Remembering Mountain Men by William Stafford
- The Sergeant’s Weddin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Miracles. by Walt Whitman
- Come, come thou bleak December wind (fragment) by Samuel Coleridge
- Lines On Seeing A Lock Of Milton’s Hair poem – John Keats poems
- The Copper Beech by Marie Howe
- There Were Dry Red Days by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
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
- everything is a lie by tulip
- Dreaming of Li Po by Tu Fu
- Day’s End by Tu Fu
- Can You See The Pride In The Panther? by Tupac Shakur
- By the Lake by Tu Fu
- Ballad of the Old Cypress by Tu Fu
- Ballad of the Army Carts by Tu Fu
- Ballad Of The Press-Gang At Shihao Village by Du Fu
- Aphrodite – The Birth by Uma Maheswari Anandane
- Alone, Looking for Blossoms Along the River by Tu Fu
- Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be by Vachel Lindsay
- Yankee Doodle by Vachel Lindsay
- Written for a Musician by Vachel Lindsay
- With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses by Vachel Lindsay
- Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket by Vachel Lindsay
- Who Knows? by Vachel Lindsay
- Where Is the Real Non-Resistant by Vachel Lindsay
- Where Is David, the Next King of Israel? by Vachel Lindsay
- When Gassy Thompson Struck It Rich by Vachel Lindsay
- When Bryan Speaks by Vachel Lindsay
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
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.