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 Magic by Preeth Nambiar
- The Instructor by Rudyard Kipling
- Robert Burns: Hey, The Dusty Miller:
- Ode of Welcome by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- Greece
- The Eolian Harp by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Fable Of The Rhododendron Stealers by Sylvia Plath
- The Queen’s Complaint by Sylvia Plath
- Hope In Spring by William Barnes
- Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman
- Низами Гянджеви – О кипарис с плавной поступью мри
- The Ploughman’s Life by Robert Burns
- Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 2 by Robert Burns
- First Verse
- The Modern Lyricist As Poet
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
- Prisoner by Rabindranath Tagore
- Playthings by Rabindranath Tagore
- Patience by Rabindranath Tagore
- Passing Breeze by Rabindranath Tagore
- Parting Words by Rabindranath Tagore
- Paper Boats by Rabindranath Tagore
- Only Thee by Rabindranath Tagore
- On the Seashore by Rabindranath Tagore
- Old And New by Rabindranath Tagore
- Ocean of Forms by Rabindranath Tagore
- O Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- My Song by Rabindranath Tagore
- My Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
- Moment’s Indulgence by Rabindranath Tagore
- Maya by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts XXXIX: There Is a Looker-On by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts XXVIII: I Dreamt by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts XXII: I Shall Gladly Suffer by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts XVIII: Your Days by Rabindranath Tagore
- Lover’s Gifts XVI: She Dwelt Here by the Pool by Rabindranath Tagore
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.