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:
- Spontaneous Me. by Walt Whitman
- Шекспир – Я так тебя люблю – Сонет 36
- Эмиль Верхарн – Законы
- The Winners by Rudyard Kipling
- The Wish poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Владимир Корнилов – 26 апреля
- To… (Kern) poem – Alexander Pushkin
- An Answer To The Rebus, By The Author Of These Poems by Phillis Wheatley
- Ольга Берггольц – Таков мой подарок тебе за измену
- A Paraphrase on an Ode in Horace’s Third Book, beginning thus:— “Inclusam Danaen turris ahenea.” by Abraham Cowley
- Composed By The Side Of Grasmere Lake 1806 by William Wordsworth
- If Truth in Hearts That Perish poem – A. E. Housman
- Олег Григорьев – Схватили за ногу правую
- A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK by Robert Herrick
- A poodle and a hound by Victoria Rose
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
- A Song by Thomas Carew
- A prayer to the Wind by Thomas Carew
- A Divine Mistress by Thomas Carew
- A Cruel Mistress. by Thomas Carew
- Specula by Thomas Edward Brown
- Salve! by Thomas Edward Brown
- Risus Dei by Thomas Edward Brown
- Pain by Thomas Edward Brown
- Opifex by Thomas Edward Brown
- My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
- Land, Ho! by Thomas Edward Brown
- Jessie by Thomas Edward Brown
- If Thou Could’st Empty All Thyself Of Self by Thomas Edward Brown
- Ibant Obscur? by Thomas Edward Brown
- I bended unto me a Bough by Thomas Edward Brown
- Dora by Thomas Edward Brown
- Disguises by Thomas Edward Brown
- Time of Roses by Thomas Hood
- Tim Turpin by Thomas Hood
- The World is with Me by Thomas Hood
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