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:
- For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein
- Taita Falcon above the Zambezi by Tom Mukasa
- A Divine Mistress by Thomas Carew
- Огюст Барбье – Ни кротостью, ни негой ясной
- Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew
- The Ballad Of Moll Magee by William Butler Yeats
- Федор Тютчев – А. Н. М.
- Teenager by Patrick Connors
- Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Возвращение
- Oh, Is It Love? poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Rains Have Come poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Terre by Wilfred Owen
- Days Too Short by William Henry Davies
- Владимир Британишский – В пыльном, душном, купеческом
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
- Content Written Off Ithica poem – Alfred Austin
- Chi È? poem – Alfred Austin
- By The Fates poem – Alfred Austin
- Burns’s Statue At Irvine poem – Alfred Austin
- “Beyond the pasture’s withered bents ” poem – Alfred Austin
- Before, Behind, And Beyond poem – Alfred Austin
- “Because I failed, shall I asperse the End” poem – Alfred Austin
- At Vaucluse poem – Alfred Austin
- At The Lattice poem – Alfred Austin
- At The Gate Of The Convent poem – Alfred Austin
- At Shelley’s House At Lerici poem – Alfred Austin
- At Shelley’s Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- At San Giovanni Del Lago poem – Alfred Austin
- A Woman’s Apology poem – Alfred Austin
- A Wintry Picture poem – Alfred Austin
- A Wintry Picture (II) poem – Alfred Austin
- A Wild Rose poem – Alfred Austin
- A Voice From The West poem – Alfred Austin
- A Twilight Song poem – Alfred Austin
- A Tusculan Question poem – Alfred Austin
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.