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:
- Arrival by Philip Larkin
- Thoughts On The Works Of Providence by Phillis Wheatley
- Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson
- The Dark Hour by William Henry Davies
- Animals Are Passing From Our Lives by Philip Levine
- Владислав Ходасевич – Обо всем в одних стихах не скажешь
- Blue Period by Shaunna Harper
- A Slice Of School by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Books poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Crazy Jane Reproved by William Butler Yeats
- The Sun Underfoot Among The Sundews poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Beggarly Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
- Silver by Walter de la Mare
- Poems On Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- My Aroma
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
- Кондратий Рылеев – О милый друг, как внятен голос твой
- Кондратий Рылеев – Не вчера ли в хороводе
- Кондратий Рылеев – Н. М. Тевяшовой на предложение ее, дабы я написал стихи на Надежду
- Кондратий Рылеев – Мне тошно здесь, как на чужбине
- Кондратий Рылеев – Меня пленяли наши деды
- Кондратий Рылеев – Людмила
- Кондратий Рылеев – Любовь к отчизне
- Кондратий Рылеев – Луна
- Кондратий Рылеев – Князю Смоленскому
- Кондратий Рылеев – Как солнце ни блестит и как оно ни светит
- Кондратий Рылеев – К портрету
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Надежде
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (У вас в гостях бывать накладно)
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (Когда душа изнемогала)
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Фролову
- Кондратий Рылеев – К Делии
- Кондратий Рылеев – Извинение перед Н.М. Тевяшовой
- Кондратий Рылеев – Из письма к Булгарину
- Кондратий Рылеев – Гусь и змия
- Иван Крылов – Ода, выбранная из псалма 71-го
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.