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:
- Singapore by Mary Gilmore
- Secret Music by Siegfried Sassoon
- Making The Lion For All It’s Got — A Ballad poem – Allen Ginsberg
- Lines Left Upon The Seat Of A Yew-Tree, by William Wordsworth
- Faith Healing by Philip Larkin
- Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson
- “Could I but leave men wiser by my song ” poem – Alfred Austin
- Allegory by Thomas Hood
- SCULPTURING by Satish Verma
- The Lads in Their Hundreds poem – A. E. Housman
- A Te Deum poem – Alfred Austin
- Альфред де Мюссе – Все мною предано забвенью
- Gem Immortality
- Федор Тютчев – Как неожиданно и ярко
- Ode For Ted by Sylvia Plath
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
- Another Way Of Love by Robert Browning
- Andrea del Sarto by Robert Browning
- An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Kar by Robert Browning
- Among the Rocks by Robert Browning
- Aix In Provence by Robert Browning
- Abt Vogler by Robert Browning
- A Woman’s Last Word by Robert Browning
- A Toccata Of Galuppi’s by Robert Browning
- A Serenade At The Villa by Robert Browning
- A Pretty Woman by Robert Browning
- A Lovers’ Quarrel by Robert Browning
- A Light Woman by Robert Browning
- A Grammarian’s Funeral by Robert Browning
- The Song of Death by Robert Burns
- The Ploughman’s Life by Robert Burns
- The Ordination by Robert Burns
- The Inventory by Robert Burns
- The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James’s Lodge by Robert Burns
- The Brigs of Ayr by Robert Burns
- Suppressed Stanzas of “The Vision” by Robert Burns
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.