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:
- Sonnet IV: Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend by William Shakespeare
- On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson, my Christian Friend, Deceased Dec. 16, 1646 poem – John Milton poems
- This Aloneness by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Олег Бундур – Где живут мысли
- The Slow Pacific Swell by Yvor Winters
- Bahut Kathin Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- In The Bus That Is Frantically Rushing From Cairo To Port Said
- Holding On by Satish Verma
- Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now by William Shakespeare
- Ольга Берггольц – Два стихотворения дочерям
- Николай Карамзин – К милости
- Владимир Британишский – Перед дверью
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Три вида
- Locked Away by Margaret Marie Hubbard
- Facing West from California’s Shores. by Walt Whitman
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
- Anteater by Shel Silverstein
- All The Time In The World by Shel Silverstein
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Alimony by Shel Silverstein
- A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein
- A Front Row Seat To Hear Ole Johnny Sing by Shel Silverstein
- A Couple More Years by Shel Silverstein
- 25 Minutes To Go by Shel Silverstein
- 100,000 Pennies by Shel Silverstein
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Stir in Stillness by Shruti Talnikar
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
- Statistic by Shivam Pandya
- Night At The Marina by Shreekumar Varma
- Projector by Shreekumar Varma
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
- Kumarakom (after the boat tragedy) by Shreekumar Varma
- Noe more unto my thoughts appeare by Sidney Godolphin
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.