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 Force Of Prayer, Or, The Founding Of Bolton, A Tradition by William Wordsworth
- Николай Тихонов – Даль полевая, как при Калите
- A Coloured Print by Shokei poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: The Solemn League And Covenant:
- Green Circle by Satish Verma
- Sheep In Fog by Sylvia Plath
- The Cactus Thicket
- Hush’d be the Camps To-day. by Walt Whitman
- Easter Snow by Winifred Mary Letts
- Rip van Winkle’s dream by Raj Arumugam
- The Harvest Bow by Seamus Heaney
- Владимир Маяковский – Вам нравится есть?.. (РОСТА №528)
- XVI: Some Verses: Of Conquerouris by William Alexander
- A Tale. June 1793 by William Cowper
- An Expostulation to Lord King by Thomas Moore
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
- In The New Sun by Philip Levine
- In A Vacant House by Philip Levine
- In A Light Time by Philip Levine
- I Won, You Lost by Philip Levine
- I Sing The Body Electric by Philip Levine
- How Much Earth by Philip Levine
- House Of Silence by Philip Levine
- Holy Day by Philip Levine
- Holding On by Philip Levine
- Heaven by Philip Levine
- Green Thumb by Philip Levine
- Gin by Philip Levine
- Gangrene by Philip Levine
- For The Country by Philip Levine
- Fist by Philip Levine
- Father by Philip Levine
- Everything by Philip Levine
- Coming Close by Philip Levine
- Clouds Above The Sea by Philip Levine
- Clouds by Philip Levine
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.