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:
- Алексей Жемчужников – Прелюдия к прощальным песням
- Every day I bear a burden by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Bredon Hill poem – A. E. Housman
- Владислав Крапивин – Все спит в тропической ночи
- Nos Immortales by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Зинаида Александрова – Лошадка
- Robert Burns: The Soldier’s Return:
- Валерий Брюсов – Германия (отрывки)
- A Hundred Collars by Robert Frost
- Robert Burns: Fragment Of Song:
- The Child Is Father To The Man by Ted Hughes
- Омар Хайям – Мир любви обрести без терзаний нельзя
- Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath
- Новелла Матвеева – Когда Вселенная открывает нам добровольно
- Sonnet 18 poem – John Milton poems
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
- Covenent by Rudyard Kipling
- Columns by Rudyard Kipling
- Cold Iron by Rudyard Kipling
- Cleared by Rudyard Kipling
- Cities and Thrones and Powers by Rudyard Kipling
- Christmas in India by Rudyard Kipling
- Cholera Camp by Rudyard Kipling
- Chapter Headings by Rudyard Kipling
- Chant-Pagan by Rudyard Kipling
- Certain Maxims Of Hafiz by Rudyard Kipling
- Cells by Rudyard Kipling
- Cain and Abel by Rudyard Kipling
- By the Hoof of the Wild Goat by Rudyard Kipling
- Butterflies by Rudyard Kipling
- Brookland Road by Rudyard Kipling
- Bridge-Guard in the Karroo by Rudyard Kipling
- Boots by Rudyard Kipling
- Blue Roses by Rudyard Kipling
- Bill ‘Awkins by Rudyard Kipling
- Belts 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.