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:
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. In June. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- O Man by Pawan Kumar
- To A Young Lady Who Had Been Reproached For Taking Long Walks In The Country by William Wordsworth
- The Sun Of The First Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- Song IV: Draw Near and Behold Me by William Morris
- A Greek Girl poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Superficially by Ndue Ukaj
- The Dream by Siegfried Sassoon
- All Saints Day 1868
- Владимир Маяковский – Подписи к рисункам в журнале “ВОБ”
- Romantic Hour by Suuk Simon Subinimah
- I Entreat You, Alfred Tennyson by Walter Savage Landor
- Insolent couplets
- Stray Pleasures by William Wordsworth
- Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye by William Shakespeare
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
- A Cliff Dwelling by Robert Frost
- A Brook in the City by Robert Frost
- A Boundless Moment by Robert Frost
- The Easter Egg Hunt by Roger Turner
- Nikolai Gumilev –
- The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Come, My Beloved, Hear From Me by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Come, Here Is Adieu To The City by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Come From The Daisied Meadows by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Before This Little Gift Was Come by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Away With Funeral Music by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Auntie’s Skirts by Robert Louis Stevenson
- At the Sea-Side by Robert Louis Stevenson
- At Last She Comes by Robert Louis Stevenson
- As One Who Having Wandered All Night Long by Robert Louis Stevenson
- As In Their Flight The Birds Of Song by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Armies in the Fire by Robert Louis Stevenson
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.