by Alden Nowlan
Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain,
lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar,
stumbling through tamarack swamps,
came the bull moose
to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture.
Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware
there was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle.
They, scenting the musk of death, seeing his great head
like the ritual mask of a blood god, moved to the other end
of the field, and waited.
The neighbours heard of it, and by afternoon
cars lined the road. The children teased him
with alder switches and he gazed at them
like an old, tolerant collie. The woman asked
if he could have escaped from a Fair.
The oldest man in the parish remembered seeing
a gelded moose yoked with an ox for plowing.
The young men snickered and tried to pour beer
down his throat, while their girl friends took their pictures.
And the bull moose let them stroke his tick-ravaged flanks,
let them pry open his jaws with bottles, let a giggling girl
plant a little purple cap
of thistles on his head.
When the wardens came, everyone agreed it was a shame
to shoot anything so shaggy and cuddlesome.
He looked like the kind of pet
women put to bed with their sons.
So they held their fire. But just as the sun dropped in the river
the bull moose gathered his strength
like a scaffolded king, straightened and lifted his horns
so that even the wardens backed away as they raised their rifles.
When he roared, people ran to their cars. All the young men
leaned on their automobile horns as he toppled.

A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: To A Mountain Daisy: On turning down with the Plough, in April, 1786.
- Ок Мельникова – Где-то на приморском
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про стукача
- A Boston Ballad, 1854. by Walt Whitman
- Lyfe by Stevens Cadet
- I Want To Write by Margaret Walker
- Know, Celia, Since Thou Art So Proud by Thomas Carew
- Владимир Луговской – Звезда (Я знаю ты любишь меня)
- Spenserian Stanza. Written At The Close Of Canto II, Book V, Of “The Faerie Queene” poem – John Keats poems
- The Keys of Morning by Walter de la Mare
- The Lesson by Roger McGough
- VII: Some Verses: On The Death of John Murray by William Alexander
- He Tells Of A Valley Full Of Lovers by William Butler Yeats
- Аля Кудряшева – Когда наступает вечер
- On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
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
- Mule Song poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- In Memoriam Mae Noblitt poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Identity poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Hymn poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Gravelly Run poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Eyesight poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Design poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Crowride poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Called Into Play poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- An Improvisation For Angular Momentum poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- After Yesterday poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Sunday Morning Blues poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- I Kiss the Feet of Angels poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Father Divine poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Sunday Morning Blues poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- I Kiss the Feet of Angels poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Grand Slam Night poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Father Divine poem – A. D. Winans poems | Poetry Monster
- Was Then by AC Zenner
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