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:
- The Return by Rudyard Kipling
- I am only the house of your beloved by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- A Plain Life by William Henry Davies
- Epitaph of a Young Poet Who Died Before Having Achieved Success poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Федор Сологуб – В лесу живет проказник неуёмный
- Fifth Grade Autobiography by Rita Dove
- Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston, South Carolina poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Lines on Fergusson, the Poet by Robert Burns
- A Translation Of The Nightingale Out Of Strada by William Strode
- Gammony Gaÿ by William Barnes
- blessing for sound health by matthew scott harris
- Night dyes its hair by Vladimir Marku
- Sonnet # 6 by Luis A. Estable
- Спиридон Дрожжин – Из поэмы “Дуняша”
- Exmoor poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- An Aquarium poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Afternoon Rain in State Street poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Afternoon Rain in State Street poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Aftermath poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Aftermath poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- After Hearing a Waltz poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- After Hearing a Waltz poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Absence poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Absence poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Winter Ride poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Winter Ride poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Tulip Garden poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Tale of Starvation poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Tale of Starvation poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Roxbury Garden poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Roxbury Garden poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Petition poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Petition poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A London Thoroughfare. 2 A.M. 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.