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:
- The Smiles Of The Bathers by Weldon Kees
- The Self and the Mulberry by Marvin Bell
- Endymion: Book III poem – John Keats poems
- Yes Dear by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 2 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Жан де Лафонтен – Карман
- The Little Big Man by Rabindranath Tagore
- Family Reunion by Sylvia Plath
- Comments: A Life Well Lived is Always an Inspiration – My Friend Muniappan Velu of Chennai, India
- American Soil by Walter William Safar
- Низами Гянджеви – Лейли и Меджнун
- Ок Мельникова – Подростковые драмы
- Владимир Маяковский – Голодные! Пан Украину грабит… (РОСТА №106)
- Владимир Маяковский – Только организация урожай умножит… (Главполитпросвет №33)
- Little Of Me by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Culver Dell And The Squire by William Barnes
- Corn A-Turnen Yollow by William Barnes
- Chris’mas Invitation by William Barnes
- Children’s Children by William Barnes
- Childhood by William Barnes
- Changes by William Barnes
- Brookwell by William Barnes
- Bringen Woone Gwaïn O’ Zundays by William Barnes
- Bob The Fiddler by William Barnes
- Blessens A-Left by William Barnes
- Bleäke’s House In Blackmwore by William Barnes
- Blackmwore Maidens by William Barnes
- The Blackbird by William Barnes
- Bishop’s Caundle by William Barnes
- Bees A-Zwarmen by William Barnes
- Beauty Undecked by William Barnes
- Be’mi’ster by William Barnes
- Bad News by William Barnes
- Aunt’s Tantrums by William Barnes
- Angels By The Door by William Barnes
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
