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:
- Olney Hymn 59: A Living And A Dead Faith by William Cowper
- Minoan Porcelain poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Маяковский – Что делать, чтоб сытому быть?.. (РОСТА №219)
- From ‘Samson Agonistes’ i poem – John Milton poems
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- Омар Хайям – Лик розы освежен дыханием весны
- Николай Языков – Романс (Угрюм стоит дремучий лес)
- Ione, Dead the Long Year poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney
- Владимир Британишский – На Марсовом поле
- Book Twelfth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored ] by William Wordsworth
- A Girl’s Garden by Robert Frost
- Rendezvous
- Lament for the Makers by William Dunbar
- Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry by William Shakespeare
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
- Bantams In Pine-Woods by Wallace Stevens
- Gray Room by Wallace Stevens
- A Postcard From The Volcano by Wallace Stevens
- A High-Toned Old Christian Woman by Wallace Stevens
- A Rabbit As King Of The Ghosts by Wallace Stevens
- Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour by Wallace Stevens
- Domination Of Black by Wallace Stevens
- Disillusionment Of Ten O’clock by Wallace Stevens
- Anecdote Of The Jar by Wallace Stevens
- Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself by Wallace Stevens
- Metaphors Of A Magnifico by Wallace Stevens
- Looking Across The Fields And Watching The Birds Fly by Wallace Stevens
- Life Is Motion by Wallace Stevens
- Le Monocle de Mon Oncle by Wallace Stevens
- Infanta Marina by Wallace Stevens
- Hymn From A Watermelon Pavilion by Wallace Stevens
- Gubbinal by Wallace Stevens
- Frogs Eat Butterflies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs by Wallace Stevens
- Farewell To Florida by Wallace Stevens
- Fabliau Of Florida by Wallace Stevens
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.