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:
- Paradise Lost: Book 12 poem – John Milton poems
- Poets
- The Beyond by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Our Father’s Works by William Barnes
- Константин Бальмонт – Музыка
- The Pet-Lamb by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Степанов – Воробей
- Lucky by Tony Hoagland
- Олег Чупров – Он впадает в смятенье
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Е. А. Карлгоф
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 103. The Mountain Spite. Томас Мур.
- On A Political Prisoner by William Butler Yeats
- Of Wit
- Владимир Высоцкий – Отпустите мне грехи
- REGENERATING by Satish Verma
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
- Такахама Кёси – Ливень прошел
- Такахама Кёси – Кончик трости моей
- Такахама Кёси – Кажется мне
- Такахама Кёси – Как ярко сияет
- Такахама Кёси – Как никогда
- Такахама Кёси – Иокогама в утро моего возвращения из Франции
- Такахама Кёси – Грущу о былом
- Такахама Кёси – Драчливые петухи
- Такахама Кёси – Давнишний приятель
- Степан Щипачев – Зрение
- Степан Щипачев – Жил мальчик в деревне
- Степан Щипачев – Застольное слово
- Степан Щипачев – За селом синел далекий лес
- Степан Щипачев – Высота
- Степан Щипачев – У моря
- Степан Щипачев – Тебе
- Степан Щипачев – Свет звезды
- Степан Щипачев – Соловей
- Степан Щипачев – Шар земной
- Степан Щипачев – Ровеснику
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.