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:
- Василий Жуковский – Герой
- Владимир Корнилов – Глухота
- Dining-Room Tea by Rupert Brooke
- Metaphors by Sylvia Plath
- Philip Levine – Philip Levine
- Владимир Британишский – Дали ему дивизию
- Unlike, For Example, The Sound Of A Riptooth Saw by Thomas Lux
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Бивак
- Grammar by Tony Hoagland
- Prelude by Shaunna Harper
- Kotri By The River
- This we Have Now by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Sonnet XII. On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour poem – John Keats poems
- Robert Burns: The Auld Farmer’s New-Year-Morning Salutation To His Auld Mare, Maggie: On giving her the accustomed ripp of corn to hansel in the New Year.
- Starting from Paumanok. by Walt Whitman
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
- Ribblesdale poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Repeat That, Repeat poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Pied Beauty poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Penmaen Pool poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Peace poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To Pray poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- No Worst, There Is None. Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- My prayers must meet a brazen heaven poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- My Own Heart Let Me Have More Have Pity On; Let poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Moonrise poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Moonless darkness stands between poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- May Magnificat poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Love Preparing to Fly poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Let me be to Thee as the circling bird poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Inversnaid poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- In The Valley Of The Elwy poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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.