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:
- A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- On The Death Of A Young Lady Of Five Years Of Age by Phillis Wheatley
- Lord Nevils Advice
- Николай Карамзин – Две песни
- A November Night by Sara Teasdale
- The Oak poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Paradise Regained: The Fourth Book poem – John Milton poems
- The Song Of The Kasak poem – Alexander Pushkin
- On The Death Of Dr. Samuel Marshall by Phillis Wheatley
- Вера Павлова – Утро вечера мудренее
- It Is Not A Word by Sara Teasdale
- Lucy by William Wordsworth
- A Tale, Founded On A Fact, Which Happened In January, 1779 by William Cowper
- Валерий Брюсов – Из тихих бездн
- Валерий Брюсов – Из-за облака скользящий
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
- Holidays by Nicolene Kissinger
- Holding my heart for YOU by Neelam Sinha
- Hemingwayan waves of time by Ndue Ukaj
- Godo Is Not Coming by Ndue Ukaj
- First kiss for Arys and Nikys by Nicole Vasilcovschi
- Fairytale by Nicole M Nugent
- Eucalyptus Grove, morning by Neal Dachstadter
- Epigoni by Neil Outar
- Enigma of A Phoenix by Neelam Dadhwal
- Dance with ME by Neelam Sinha
- Confession by Neelam Sinha
- Clashes by Ndue Ukaj
- Best Friend by Nicole M Nugent
- Ballad de soul by Neelam Sinha
- Appeal by Ndue Ukaj
- Apollo the great by Neelam Shah
- Afraid of rabbit HOLE by Neelam Sinha
- A soul’s DESIRE by Neelam Sinha
- A seed’s destiny by Neelam Sinha
- Your Eyes by Omair Bhat
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.