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:
- The Garden Of Kama Kama The Indian Eros
- Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Довольно
- Memory by William Browne
- Sculptor by Sylvia Plath
- A winning lot
- Sonnet 22 poem – John Milton poems
- Ольга Седакова – Луг, юго-западный ветер
- Aftermath poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Token by Robert Creeley
- Robert Burns: O Leave Novels:
- Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish Novelists by William Butler Yeats
- Strong Mercy by Rabindranath Tagore
- Paudeen by William Butler Yeats
- Craigieburn Wood by Robert Burns
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
- Welcome A.O.H. Men by Michael McGovern
- Weekend Glory by Maya Angelou
- Twilight Acts of Decadence. by Michael Levy
- Travel to Infinite Places by Michael Levy
- To A Cricket by Michael McGovern
- The Woods At Night by May Swenson
- The Waradgery Tribe by Mary Gilmore
- The Rock Cries Out to Us Today by Maya Angelou
- The Passing of Stumpy Shore by Mervyn John Webster
- The Mothering Blackness by Maya Angelou
- The Meaning of Music by Mercedes Madrigal
- The Lesson by Maya Angelou
- The January Birds by Maurice Riordan
- The Hermit Goes Up Attic by Maxine Kumin
- The Gravy Train by Michael Levy
- The Fishermen, The Gulls & The Bible People by Michael Estabrook
- The First Thrush by Mary Gilmore
- The Fairies Break Their Dances by A. E. Housman
- The Burning Crusade by Memphis Knight
- The Rolling Mills by Michael McGovern
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.