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:
- sacrifice_and_love.html
- The Flower poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- To L. R. E. by Sara Teasdale
- Константин Бальмонт – Эльзи
- Sonnet CXXXIII by William Shakespeare
- Жан де Лафонтен – Мельник, Сын его и Осел
- A Dogs Love Is a Never Ending Game by Stacey Chillemi
- Владимир Высоцкий – Я стою, стою спиною к строю
- Robert Burns: Tam Samson’s Elegy: When this worthy old sportman went out, last muirfowl season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian’s phrase, “the last of his fields,” and expressed an ardent wish to die and be buried in the muirs. On this hint the author composed his elegy and epitaph.-R.B., 1787.
- Disconnect by Snowdon King
- O my faithful by Priyanka Tungana
- A Fantasy by Sara Teasdale
- The Rose Of Battle by William Butler Yeats
- Gentle Heart, Indulge Thy Dreaming by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- In Memoriam 131: O Living Will That Shalt Endure poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
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
- Orlando Furioso Canto 9 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 8 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 7 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 6 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 5 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 4 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 3 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 24 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 23 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 22 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 21 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 20 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 2 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 19 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 18 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 17 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 16 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 15 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 14 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso canto 13 by Ludovico Ariosto
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.