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:
- At The Close Of The Canvass poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Two Kopjes by Rudyard Kipling
- The Proud Farmer by Vachel Lindsay
- time by tulip
- The Starling poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Британишский – Ты шепчешь мне
- Sparkles from The Wheel. by Walt Whitman
- Style Ideas For Vests For Women
- I was Looking a Long While. by Walt Whitman
- To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady’s Brother and Sister by Phillis Wheatley
- Robert Burns: The Calf: To the Rev. James Steven, on his text, Malachi, ch. iv. vers. 2. “And ye shall go forth, and grow up, as Calves of the stall.”
- Invitation
- Нинель Эпатова – Настя с мамою в лесочке
- Robert Burns: O Leave Novels:
- For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell
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
- Little Flute by Rabindranath Tagore
- Light by Rabindranath Tagore
- Let Me Not Forget by Rabindranath Tagore
- Leave This by Rabindranath Tagore
- Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore
- Journey Home by Rabindranath Tagore
- Innermost One by Rabindranath Tagore
- Give Me Strength by Rabindranath Tagore
- Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
- Free Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
- Farewell by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fairyland by Rabindranath Tagore
- Face To Face by Rabindranath Tagore
- Endless Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Dungeon by Rabindranath Tagore
- Distant Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Defamation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Colored Toys 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.