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:
- Ольга Берггольц – Таков мой подарок тебе за измену
- Dying
- Robert Burns: Nithsdale’s Welcome Hame:
- Михаил Кузмин – Вот после ржавых львов и рева
- L’Après-Midi D’un Faune poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Virgin Maid of Orleans, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s sonnet: La Pucelle by T. Wignesan.
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: Is it, then, regret for buried time poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Ode to Poetry by Walter William Safar
- The Rendezvous
- Memory poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- The Source by W. S. Merwin
- How Thought You That This Thing Could Captivate? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- When I Go Alone At Night by Rabindranath Tagore
- World Below the Brine, The. by Walt Whitman
- The Resting Place
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
- The Mystic Isle by Rainbow Reed
- Spiritual Memories of Mother by Raj Napal
- Primrose Rose by Rainbow Reed
- Prayers by Rainbow Reed
- This by Ralph Angel
- Man in a Window by Ralph Angel
- Breaking and Entering by Ralph Angel
- Online Lover by Rainbow Reed
- One Day You Will Miss Me.. by Rahul S
- Of Love and All by Raja Mannar
- Mother Teresa by Raj Napal
- Mother by Sachin Yadav (Pen Name: Rahul Nachhiketa)
- Journey with God by Raj Napal
- It Takes a While to Disappear by Ralph Angel
- In Every Direction by Ralph Angel
- I Thank You, Mum by Raj Napal
- Hope for a New World by Raj Napal
- God Cut the Cord by Raj Napal
- Even Because by Ralph Angel
- Dinner Date by Rainbow Reed
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.