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:
- The Guide Post by William Barnes
- Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Гиляровский – Чем дальше в море
- Низами Гянджеви – Семь красавиц
- Finding by Rupert Brooke
- Степан Щипачев – Застольное слово
- Robert Burns: Out Over The Forth:
- Fan-Piece, For Her Imperial Lord poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Закаляйся
- Far Within Us #3 by Vasko Popa
- The Reply Of Q. Horatius Flaccus To A Roman “Round-Robin” poem – Alfred Austin
- Омар Хайям – Если жизнь все равно неизбежно пройдет
- Red Planet Haiku by Thomas J Camp
- Sabbath, My Love poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Маяковский – Электричество – вид энергии
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
- Иван Крылов – Ода, выбранная из псалма 14-го
- Иван Крылов – Лиса-строитель (Басня)
- Иван Крылов – Лев состаревшийся (Басня)
- Иван Козлов – Умирающая Эрменгарда
- Иван Коневской – Воскресение
- Иван Коневской – В небывалое
- Иван Елагин – Спрашивал ответа
- Иван Дмитриев – Сверчки
- Иван Дмитриев – Старик и трое молодых
- Иван Дмитриев – Смерть и Умирающий
- Иван Дмитриев – Слепец, Собака его и Школьник
- Иван Дмитриев – Шарлатан
- Иван Демьянов – Парикмахер рак-омар
- Иван Демьянов – Одежкин домик
- Иван Бунин – Норд-ост
- Иван Бунин – Ночного неба свод далекий
- Иван Бунин – Ночлег
- Иван Бунин – Ночь идет, и темнеет
- Иван Бунин – Никогда вы не воскреснете, не встанете
- Иван Бунин – Нет солнца, но светлы пруды
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.