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:
- Song of the Bowmen of Shu poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимн обеду
- Олег Бундур – Дождь
- Robert Burns: Inscription For An Altar Of Independence: At Kerroughtree, the Seat of Mr. Heron.
- As Vanquish’d Erin by Thomas Moore
- Anterotics by William Ernest Henley
- In the New Garden in all the Parts. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: The Farewell:
- Of Clementina by Walter Savage Landor
- In Memoriam Mae Noblitt poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Владимир Высоцкий – Жизни после смерти нет
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For Mr. Gabriel Richardson:
- Cologne by Paul Celan
- Written In March by William Wordsworth
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
- Zitten Out The Wold Year by William Barnes
- Zellen Woone’s Honey To Buy Zome’hat Sweet by William Barnes
- Woodcom’ Feast by William Barnes
- Wold Friends A-Met by William Barnes
- A Wold Friend by William Barnes
- A Witch by William Barnes
- Whitsuntide An’ Club Walken by William Barnes
- Vo’k A-Comèn Into Church by William Barnes
- Vellen O’ The Tree by William Barnes
- Uncle An’ Aunt by William Barnes
- Treat Well Your Wife by William Barnes
- To Me by William Barnes
- The Zilver-Weed by William Barnes
- The Woodlands by William Barnes
- The Wold Wall by William Barnes
- The Wold Waggon by William Barnes
- The Wold Vo’k Dead by William Barnes
- The Woddy Hollow by William Barnes
- The Winter’s Willow by William Barnes
- The Window Freäm’d Wi’ Stwone by William Barnes
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.