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:
- Annan Water poem – Andrew Lang poems
- In Defense of Santa Claus
- Leaving and Leaving You by Sophie Hannah
- The Life Theoretic poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Степанов – Хрюшка
- The Child and the Mariner by William Henry Davies
- The Babysitters by Sylvia Plath
- Вера Павлова – Жизнь в посудной лавке
- Николай Языков – Прими ты мой поклон заздравный
- Spring Rain by Sara Teasdale
- The House Of Dreams by Sara Teasdale
- I Have a Fire for You in my Mouth by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Rains Have Come poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- William Henry Davies – William Henry Davies
- Lines Written In Early Spring by William Wordsworth
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
- Taita Falcon above the Zambezi by Tom Mukasa
- Steeds of Autumn by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Sorry by Tom Mukasa
- Ribbons & Pearls by Timothy Cole
- Racial Memories of a Chickadee by Todd H. C. Fischer
- My Miracle Valentine by Tirtha Raj Baral (Sanu Punatare)
- Mother’s Day, 1993 by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Mother Earth; Her Beauty And Her Destruction by TMBedell
- Manifestations by Tom Shea
- Love’s Divinest Power by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- In Token Of The Love You Gave by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Imbrium by Todd H. C. Fischer
- I Make My bed Of Roses by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Gentle Heart, Indulge Thy Dreaming by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Edgar Allan Poe by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Cenotaph, Manitoulin Island by Todd H. C. Fischer
- Beyond The Veil by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- And Still to USA they get! by Tom Mukasa
- Walls at Drogheda by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- The Death of Knowledge by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
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