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:
- Dawlish poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Passing Of The Primroses poem – Alfred Austin
- Canzone by W H Auden
- The State
- Gleaners Of Fame poem – Alfred Austin
- Федор Сологуб – Во мне мечты мои цветут
- Hero-Worship poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The First Part: Sonnet 14 – Nor Arne, nor Mincius, nor stately Tiber, by William Drummond
- A Highly Valuable Chain Of Thoughts poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Late, by Myself by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- After-Thought poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Владимир Корнилов – Анафемский сон
- Eloisa to Abelard poem – Alexander Pope
- A Poet039s Privilege
- Saint George the Dragon by Michael Nikoletseas
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
- Leaving Albania by Morelle Smith
- Komori by T. Wignesan
- In torque by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- In the Blaze.. by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- I Salute You , O Women! by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen
- I like to let the word fly about by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- I a soul by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Hunger and Thirst by Muhammad Dawood Jan
- Here by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Haiku: The Bluebird and the Sky by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: March by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: January by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: His Little Drum by Monty Gilmer
- Green Notes by Mrunmayi Mandan
- From the heart of your heart by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Forbidden Fruit by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Days and Nights by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Dark Room( qua vadis) by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Crush by Muhereza Louis
- Cinquain on Love: Touch by Monty Gilmer
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.