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:
- Михаил Лермонтов – В рядах стояли безмолвной толпой
- Vote Excerpt
- Омар Хайям – Лучше пить и веселых красавиц ласкать
- Федор Сологуб – Вильгельм второй
- To a Gentleman, Who Married His Cast Mistress by William Somervile
- All About You by Shel Silverstein
- Dust by Sara Teasdale
- houses.html
- The Old House poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Mother Of God by William Butler Yeats
- The Lighted Window by Sara Teasdale
- Robert Burns: Versicles On Sign-Posts :
- Sonnet CVIII by William Shakespeare
- Folk Singer’s Blues by Shel Silverstein
- Poem Stories
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
- A Lover poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- In Excelsis poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- In A Time Of Dearth poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Granadilla poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Free Fantasia On Japanese Themes poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Flute-Priest Song For Rain poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Aliens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Lover poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Autum by T.S. Hulme
- America
- The Hanging Tree
- Wolves by Mary Bone
- Wind poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- White and Green poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Vintage poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Venus Transiens poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Venetian Glass poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Two Travellers in the Place Vendome poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To John Keats poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- To Elizabeth Ward Perkins poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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.