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:
- Doomes-Day: The Fourth Houre by William Alexander
- Song II: Have No Thought for Tomorrow by William Morris
- Владимир Корнилов – Зачем
- Impromptu on Dumourier’s Desertion of the French Republican Army by Robert Burns
- The Foreigner poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Олег Григорьев – Григорьев Олег ел тыкв
- The house where I was born (07) by Yves Bonnefoy
- In the Valley of Cauteretz poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Desperation by Vishü Rita Krocha
- Epistle to Hugh Parker by Robert Burns
- Orlando Furioso Canto 8 by Ludovico Ariosto
- At Last the Secret is Out by W H Auden
- The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling
- Loves Blindness
- Lady Clare poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson 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
- The Poor House by Sara Teasdale
- The Old Maid by Sara Teasdale
- The Nights Remember by Sara Teasdale
- The New Moon by Sara Teasdale
- The Net by Sara Teasdale
- The Mother Of A Poet by Sara Teasdale
- The Metropolitan Tower by Sara Teasdale
- The Meeting by Sara Teasdale
- The Love That Goes A-Begging by Sara Teasdale
- The Look by Sara Teasdale
- The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale
- The Lights Of New York by Sara Teasdale
- The Lighted Window by Sara Teasdale
- The Lamp by Sara Teasdale
- The Kiss by Sara Teasdale
- The Kind Moon by Sara Teasdale
- The Inn Of Earth by Sara Teasdale
- The India Wharf by Sara Teasdale
- The House Of Dreams by Sara Teasdale
- The Heart’s House by Sara Teasdale
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.