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:
- Dark Wood, Dark Water by Sylvia Plath
- Outset by Mike Yuan
- Mild is the Parting Year by Walter Savage Landor
- From the bay at Tago poem – Yamabe no Akahito poems | Poetry Monster
- Эмиль Верхарн – Завершение
- General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali
- Анатолий Жигулин – Начало поэмы
- Николай Языков – Е. А. Свербеевой (Мысль неразгульного поэта)
- Complaint Of A Poet Manqu
- To a Discarded Toast by William Somervile
- Rosalie by Washington Allston
- Sakal Bun poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Fiesta Melons by Sylvia Plath
- Epigram on Francis Grose the Antiquary by Robert Burns
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
- Poem of Joys. by Walt Whitman
- Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
- Here, Sailor. by Walt Whitman
- I Dream’d in a Dream. by Walt Whitman
- Turn, O Libertad. by Walt Whitman
- A Clear Midnight. by Walt Whitman
- Are You the New person, drawn toward Me? by Walt Whitman
- Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats. by Walt Whitman
- Soledad by Robert Hayden
- Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden
- Perseus by Robert Hayden
- O Daedalus, Fly Away Home by Robert Hayden
- Among the Multitude. by Walt Whitman
- American Feuillage. by Walt Whitman
- An Army Corps on the March. by Walt Whitman
- All is Truth. by Walt Whitman
- A Carol of Harvest, for 1867 by Walt Whitman
- A Promise to California. by Walt Whitman
- After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman
- A Boston Ballad, 1854. by Walt Whitman
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.