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:
- From the heart of your heart by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Zummer Thoughts In Winter Time by William Barnes
- She’s Flawless by Mandy Williams
- An Abandoned Factory, Detroit by Philip Levine
- Address To Kilchurn Castle, Upon Loch Awe by William Wordsworth
- The Example by William Henry Davies
- Валерий Брюсов – Это было? Неужели?
- St. Agnes’ Eve poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- My prayers must meet a brazen heaven poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Captive by Rudyard Kipling
- Impromptu on Carron Iron Works by Robert Burns
- tracks_in_the_private_country.html
- Sonet 47 by William Alexander
- The Old Huntsman by Siegfried Sassoon
- Here by Muralidharan Mudaliar
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
- Oonts by Rudyard Kipling
- One Viceroy Resigns by Rudyard Kipling
- Natural Theology by Rudyard Kipling
- My Rival by Rudyard Kipling
- My New-Cut Ashler by Rudyard Kipling
- My Lady’s Law by Rudyard Kipling
- My Boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling
- Mulholland’s Contract by Rudyard Kipling
- Mowgli’s Song Against People by Rudyard Kipling
- Mowgli’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Mother o’ Mine by Rudyard Kipling
- Morning Song in the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- Mine Sweepers by Rudyard Kipling
- Mesopotamia by Rudyard Kipling
- Merrow Down by Rudyard Kipling
- Mary’s Son by Rudyard Kipling
- Mary, Pity Women! by Rudyard Kipling
- Many Inventions by Rudyard Kipling
- Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling
- Lukannon by Rudyard Kipling
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.