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:
- Море волнуется, манит к себе
- К той, что названа Кариной
- Song from Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
- Implosions
- Владимир Корнилов – Погодинка
- Что такое хорошо и что такое плохо – Владимир Маяковский (Стих): Читать стихотворение на Poetry Monster
- Birth Of A Flower by Riss Ryker
- Robert Burns: The Kirk Of Scotland’s Alarm:
- Bathing In The River
- Владимир Высоцкий – Вы были у Беллы
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- To What Serves Mortal Beauty? poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Иван Мятлев – Розы
- Олег Чупров – В лесу просторно, тихо, ясно
- Grass is a taut crew; poem – Amy Michelle Mosier poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney
- Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney
- Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney
- Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney
- Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney
- Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
- Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney
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.