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:
- Владислав Крапивин – На Диком Западе
- To The Honourable T. H. Esq; On the Death Of His Daughter by Phillis Wheatley
- Ольга Берггольц – Возвращение
- The Poet’s Grave by Nijole Miliauskaite
- I Just Wanna Be Your Valentine by Miraj Patel
- Ancient History by Siegfried Sassoon
- Валерий Брюсов – Голос мертвого
- Irony poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Wound by Robert McNamara
- The Voice poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton by Robert Burns
- Ольга Берггольц – К сердцу Родины руку тянет
- Константин Батюшков – Мечта
- Олег Сердобольский – Стой, кто идет
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Пытки
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
- Sonnet 08 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 07 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 06 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 05 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 04 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03: Canzone poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 01 poem – John Milton poems
- Song On May Morning poem – John Milton poems
- Samson Agonistes poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 88 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 87 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 86 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 85 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 84 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 83 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 82 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 81 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 80 poem – John Milton poems
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.