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 Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Sonnet. On The Sea poem – John Keats poems
- The Cup of Life by Mike Yuan
- A Hermit Thrush poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Олег Бундур – Про чемпионов
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
- Lichtenberg by Rudyard Kipling
- A Farmhouse Dirge poem – Alfred Austin
- Absolution by Siegfried Sassoon
- Stanzas To Miss Wylie poem – John Keats poems
- Ten Years After by Graham Rowlands
- To Independence by Tobias Smollett
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- Advice to the Ladies by William Somervile
- NOCHE MARINA by Victoria l.mora paoli
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
- Альфред Теннисон – Сёстры
- Альфред Теннисон – Странствия Мальдуна
- Альфред Теннисон – Смерть Старого Года
- Альфред Теннисон – Рыцарь Галаад
- Альфред Теннисон – Прощание
- Альфред Теннисон – Пересекая Черту
- Альфред Теннисон – Нищая и король
- Альфред Теннисон – Morte d’Arthur
- Альфред Теннисон – Лорд Борлей
- Альфред Теннисон – Леди Клара Вер-де-Вер
- Альфред Теннисон – Королева мая
- Альфред Теннисон – Годива
- Альфред де Мюссе – Вспомни обо мне
- Альфред де Мюссе – Все мною предано забвенью
- Альфред де Мюссе – Слова отчаянья прекрасней всех других
- Альфред де Мюссе – Прости
- Альфред де Мюссе – Песнь барберины
- Альфред де Мюссе – Печаль
- Альфред де Мюссе – Ночи
- Альфред де Мюссе – Не забывай! Когда заря рассвета
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