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:
- Song—Awa’, Whigs, Awa’ by Robert Burns
- Aquamarine Butterfly by Nina Gabriel
- Plato
- ‘In the Pink’ by Siegfried Sassoon
- Sonnet 59: If there be nothing new, but that which is by William Shakespeare
- June Dreams, In January by Sidney Lanier
- Николай Заболоцкий – Я трогал листы эвкалипта
- The Rao Of Ilore
- English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Forevermore. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн.
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- houses.html
- Ольга Берггольц – Стихи о ленинградских большевика
- With A Copy Of Shakespeares Sonnets On Leaving College
- A Literature Lesson. Sir Patrick Spens in the Eighteenth Century Manner by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Валерий Брюсов – Двадцать лет назад ты умерла
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
- Алишер Навои – О сердце, столько на земле
- Алишер Навои – О, мне бы крылья
- Алишер Навои – Нет, не от слез кровавых одежда моя красней
- Алишер Навои – Не в камфарной ли одежде этот кипарис прямой
- Алишер Навои – Над головой моею осенних дней листопад
- Алишер Навои – На лице горит созвездье у красавицы моей
- Алишер Навои – Моя безумная душа в обломках
- Алишер Навои – Луна в носилках, о постой
- Алишер Навои – Кто на стезе любви един
- Алишер Навои – Когда, тоскуя по тебе
- Алишер Навои – Кипарис подобен розе увлажненной
- Алишер Навои – Как от вздохов безнадежных дым
- Алишер Навои – Эти губы точно розы
- Алишер Навои – Если б был я быстрым ветром
- Алишер Навои – Двух резвых своих газелей, которые нежно спят
- Алишер Навои – Цветком, что счастье нам несет
- Алишер Навои – Чудесные свершения середины жизни
- Алишер Навои – Чаша, солнце отражая
- Альфред Теннисон – Волшебница Шалот
- Альфред Теннисон – В долине
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.