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:
- An English Breeze by Robert Louis Stevenson
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- Николай Тихонов – Когда уйду
- Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper
- Epitaph on a Noisy Polemic by Robert Burns
- My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be by Roald Dahl
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись на иллюминацию, представленную ее императорскому Величеству от их императорских высочеств в Ораниенбауме 1750 года июля 31 дня
- Михаил Лермонтов – Хоть давно изменила мне радость
- Hide-And-Seek by Vasko Popa
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимн обеду
- Михаил Ломоносов – Чем ты дале прочь отходишь
- A Moment Of Happiness by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Джон Китс – Делим яблоко Евы
- Владимир Британишский – Молния ударяет
- The Men Who Wear My Clothes by Vernon Scannell
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
- Гавриил Державин – На храм при Гапсале
- Гавриил Державин – На выздоровление мецената
- Гавриил Державин – На возвращение графа Зубова из Персии
- Гавриил Державин – На умеренность
- Гавриил Державин – На рождение царицы Гремиславы
- Гавриил Державин – На прогулку в грузинском саду
- Гавриил Державин – Ключ
- Гавриил Державин – Капнисту
- Гавриил Державин – К силуэту Ивана Ивановича Хемницера
- Гавриил Державин – К правде
- Гавриил Державин – Анакреоново удовольствие
- Гавриил Державин – Анакреон у печки
- Гавриил Державин – Афинейскому витязю
- Галина Гампер – Здесь сегодня все пошло с молотка
- Галина Гампер – Забываю я все
- Галина Гампер – Я вгоняла содержанье
- Галина Гампер – Я повторяю, сердце остужая
- Федор Тютчев – Князю Суворову
- Федор Тютчев – Князю Горчакову
- Федор Тютчев – Каким венком нам увенчать
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.