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:
- La Nue
- Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay
- Winter Wind by Vasil Slavov
- The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell
- Less Time poem – Andre Breton poems
- The Recruit poem – A. E. Housman
- Анатолий Жигулин – Ах, как весело листья летят
- The Motherless Child by William Barnes
- Владимир Бенедиктов – К точкам
- Владислав Крапивин – Когда тебя замучил враг
- Владимир Маяковский – Чудеса
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl
- Lady Clare poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sonnet. Written Before Re-Read King Lear poem – John Keats poems
- Crush by Muhereza Louis
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
- Николай Заболоцкий – Змеи
- Николай Заболоцкий – Жена
- Николай Заболоцкий – Зеленый луч
- Николай Заболоцкий – Засуха
- Николай Заболоцкий – Я трогал листы эвкалипта
- Николай Заболоцкий – Я не ищу гармонии в природе
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ходоки
- Николай Заболоцкий – Все, что было в душе
- Николай Заболоцкий – Воздушное путешествие
- Николай Заболоцкий – Вопросы к морю
- Николай Заболоцкий – Весна в лесу
- Николай Заболоцкий – Вечерний бар
- Николай Заболоцкий – Вчера, о смерти размышляя
- Николай Заболоцкий – В тайге
- Николай Заболоцкий – В этой роще березовой
- Николай Заболоцкий – Утренняя песня
- Николай Заболоцкий – Урал
- Николай Заболоцкий – Творцы дорог
- Николай Заболоцкий – Тбилисские ночи
- Николай Заболоцкий – Свадьба
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.