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 Pet-Lamb by William Wordsworth
- Иван Крылов – Лиса-строитель (Басня)
- Le Christianisme by Wilfred Owen
- Moonlight On The Door by William Barnes
- Faith and Faiths by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- Наум Коржавин – О Господи! Как я хочу умереть
- Владимир Корнилов – Вечер Гарри Каспарова в Политехническом
- Владимир Британишский – Первая послевоенная осень
- Николай Рубцов – Я тебя целовал
- A Broken Appointment by Thomas Hardy
- The Homestead by William Barnes
- To Youth by Robert Herrick
- Bare Tongue by Satish Verma
- To J. S. poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Collage by Martine Morillon-Carreau
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
- Today by Satish Verma
- TIRELESSLY by Satish Verma
- THE WHEELS by Satish Verma
- THE WAX PALACE by Satish Verma
- THE WARS by Satish Verma
- THE MOSAIC by Satish Verma
- The Fall by Satish Verma
- That Is by Satish Verma
- Tall Claims by Satish Verma
- Taking On by Satish Verma
- Taking Off by Satish Verma
- SURVIVAL by Satish Verma
- STUNNED by Satish Verma
- STRIPED NOTHINGS by Satish Verma
- Stray Colors by Satish Verma
- STRANGE HAPPENINGS by Satish Verma
- STONEWASHED by Satish Verma
- STEPPING OUT by Satish Verma
- SOVEREIGNTY by Satish Verma
- Song Of Unquiet Spirit by Satish Verma
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.