A poem by Alan Dugan
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?
The wading, wintered pack-beasts of the feet
slough off, in spring, the dead rind of the shoes’
leather detention, the big toe’s yellow horn
shines with a natural polish, and the whole
person seems to profit. The opposite appears
when dead sharks wash up along the beach
for no known reason. What is more built
for winning than the swept-back teeth,
water-finished fins, and pure bad eyes
these old, efficient forms of appetite
are dressed in? Yet it looks as if the sea
digested what it wished of them with viral ease
and threw up what was left to stink and dry.
If this shows how the sea approaches life
in its propensity to feed as animal entire,
then sharks are comforts, feet are terrified,
but they vacation in the mystery and why not?
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?:
what the sun burns up of it, the moon puts back.
A few random poems:
- Father Of A Boy Named Sue by Shel Silverstein
- Жан де Лафонтен – Осел и Собака
- Николай Карамзин – К Эмилии
- Ode to Mother Nature by Walter William Safar
- Elegy on the late Miss Burnet of Monboddo by Robert Burns
- Николай Заболоцкий – Воздушное путешествие
- Вера Павлова – Утро вечера мудренее
- The Rupaiyat of Omar Kal’vin by Rudyard Kipling
- One Word
- Михаил Ломоносов – Богиня, дщерь божеств, науки основавших
- Untitled #11 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- I, or Someone Like Me by Marvin Bell
- The Clasp by Sharon Olds
- I Am Part Of The Load by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Robert Burns: Robert Bruce’s March To Bannockburn:
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
- The Four Winds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Five Adorations poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Buddhist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Atheist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Thanatos Basileos poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Prologue to Rodin in Rime poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Power poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Pan to Artemis poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Optimist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- On; On; Poet poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Lyric of Love to Leah poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Long Odds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Logos poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Linoz Isidoz poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- La Gitana poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Independence poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Hymn to Pan poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Hymn to Lucifer poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Happy Dust poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Elegy poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
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.