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:
- Joker of the Pack by Shekhar Srinivasan
- Extinguish Thou My Eyes by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Hurry by Marie Howe
- Going for Water by Robert Frost
- Иван Варавва – Соловей на веточке
- They Thought Her Crazy by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Song III: It Grew Up Without Heeding by William Morris
- Ode, Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Oswald of Auchencruive by Robert Burns
- Гавриил Державин – О удовольствии
- Sonnet 14 poem – John Milton poems
- The Alchemist in the City poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Quicksand Years. by Walt Whitman
- The Home by Rabindranath Tagore
- Stanzas Written In My Pocket Copy Of Thomson’s “Castle Of Indolence” by William Wordsworth
- To Don Quixote, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s A Don Quichotte by T. Wignesan.
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
- River poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Rising Early poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Retake, Union Square poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Requiem For A Bartender’s Dream poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Repentance poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Prisoners poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Potions poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Once Upon A Wandering Mind poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- On A May Glory-A Welcome Song poem – Nithin Purple poems | Poetry Monster
- Now, What is Poetry? poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Night poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- My Father’s Love Letters poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Mules poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Love’s Confession poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- Life poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- La Vie Boheme poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Journal Entry poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- [ I think I’m there? ] poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee poem – Zameer Careem poems | Poetry Monster
- Heartbreak at 2 A.M. poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
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.