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 Nearness That Is All by Samuel Hazo
- Алексей Толстой – Ты почто, злая кручинушка
- Олег Бундур – В саду
- A March Afternoon poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: The Minstrel At Lincluden:
- Dawn Revisited by Rita Dove
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Shall I like An Eternal World by Nithin Purple
- Robert Burns: Epistle To J. Lapraik, An Old Scottish Bard:
- About The Sheltered Garden Ground by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Broken Men by Rudyard Kipling
- Death & Co. by Sylvia Plath
- Ольга Берггольц – Бабье лето (надо любить, жалеть, прощать)
- A Song On The Baths by William Strode
- My Bed is Covered Yellow by Peter Orlovsky
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
- Nature’s Law: A Poem by Robert Burns
- My Highland Lassie, O by Robert Burns
- My Heart’s In The Highlands by Robert Burns
- My Girl she’s Airy: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- My Father was a Farmer: A Ballad by Robert Burns
- Mr. William Smellie: A Sketch by Robert Burns
- Motto prefixed to the Author’s first Publication by Robert Burns
- Monody on a Lady, famed for her Caprice by Robert Burns
- Masonic Song—Ye Sons of Old Killie by Robert Burns
- Mary Morison by Robert Burns
- Man was made to Mourn: A Dirge by Robert Burns
- Lord Gregory: A Ballad by Robert Burns
- Lines Written under the Picture of Miss Burns by Robert Burns
- Lines written on a Bank-note by Robert Burns
- Lines to Sir John Whitefoord, Bart by Robert Burns
- Lines to Mr. John Kennedy by Robert Burns
- Lines to John Syme, Esq., with a dozen of Porter by Robert Burns
- Lines to John M’Murdo of Drumlanrig by Robert Burns
- Lines to an Old Sweetheart by Robert Burns
- Lines to a Gentleman who sent a Newspaper 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.