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:
- Владимир Степанов – Весёлый транспорт
- Will Remain Unseen by Vasil Slavov
- The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Japanese Wood-Carving poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Her Answer:
- The Ravaged Face by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Бенедиктов – К точкам
- The blanket is same always by Neelam Sinha
- Юрий Кузнецов – Простота милосердия
- Sonnet V. To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses poem – John Keats poems
- Robert Burns: Lines Written On A Banknote:
- Robert Burns: Sketch -New Year’s Day [1790]: To Mrs. Dunlop.
- A Ghost in the Shell by Talha Jafri
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Л. Е. Ф.
- A Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
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
- Василий Жуковский – Библия
- Василий Жуковский – Бедный певец
- Василий Жуковский – Ахилл
- Василий Жуковский – Адельстан
- Василий Жуковский – 19 марта 1823
- Василий Жуковский – К Перовскому (Счастливец, ею ты любим)
- Василий Жуковский – К Нине (О Нина, о Нина)
- Василий Жуковский – К ней
- Василий Жуковский – К мимо пролетавшему гению
- Василий Жуковский – К князю Вяземскому
- Василий Жуковский – К кн. Вяземскому и В.Л.Пушкину
- Василий Жуковский – К Филону
- Василий Жуковский – К Дмитриеву (Нет, не прошла)
- Василий Жуковский – Из альбома, подаренного Ростопчиной (Пушкин)
- Василий Жуковский – Гомер
- Василий Жуковский – Государыне великой княгине на рождение
- Василий Жуковский – Голос с того света
- Василий Жуковский – Герой
- Василий Жуковский – Гаральд
- Василий Жуковский – Эолова арфа
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.