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:
- Игорь Северянин – Щит-солнце
- The Unborn by Sharon Olds
- A Letter From Italy poem – Alfred Austin
- To One False In Love by Sappho
- Magic Markers by Rose Mary Boehm
- On Mistress Nicely, a Pattern for Housekeepers by Thomas Hood
- The Time Around Scars by Michael Ondaatje
- Олег Бундур – Гроза
- Алексей Толстой – Ушкуйник
- Robert Burns: The Rights Of Woman: An Occasional Address. Spoken by Miss Fontenelle on her benefit night, November 26, 1792.
- As Consequent, Etc. by Walt Whitman
- Infant Joy by William Blake
- Xai Kou From Book Seeds Of Faith
- Lover’s Gifts VIII: There Is Room for You by Rabindranath Tagore
- Call To Account! by Vladimir Mayakovsky
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
- One’s-Self I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- One Hour to Madness and Joy. by Walt Whitman
- Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City. by Walt Whitman
- On the Beach at Night, Alone. by Walt Whitman
- On Journeys Through The States. by Walt Whitman
- Old Ireland. by Walt Whitman
- Offerings. by Walt Whitman
- Of the Visage of Things. by Walt Whitman
- Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances. by Walt Whitman
- Of Him I Love Day and Night. by Walt Whitman
- O You Whom I Often and Silently Come. by Walt Whitman
- O Tan-faced Prairie Boy. by Walt Whitman
- O Sun of Real Peace. by Walt Whitman
- O Star of France. by Walt Whitman
- O Living Always—Always Dying. by Walt Whitman
- O Hymen! O Hymenee! by Walt Whitman
- O Bitter Sprig! Confession Sprig! by Walt Whitman
- Now List to my Morning’s Romanza. by Walt Whitman
- Now Finale to the Shore. by Walt Whitman
- Not Youth Pertains to Me. 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.