A poem by Alan Dugan
As an American traveler I have
to remember not to get actionably mad
about the way things are around here.
Tomorrow I’ll be a thousand miles away
from the way it is around here. I will
keep my temper, I will not kill the dog
next door, nor will I kill the next-door wife,
both of whom are crazy and aggressive
and think they live at the center of culture
like everyone else in this college town.
This is because I’m leaving, I’m taking off
by car, by light plane, by jet, by taxicab,
for some place else a thousand miles away,
so I caution myself: control your rage,
even if it causes a slight heart attack.
Stay out of jail tonight before you leave,
and don’t get obstreperous in transit tomorrow
so as to stay out of jail on arrival tomorrow night.
Think: the new handcuffs are sharp inside
and meant to cut the wrists. You’re not too old
to be raped in their filthy overcrowded jails
and you’ll lose your glasses and false teeth.
How would you eat, study and be
a traveling lecturer if you got out alive and sane?
So remember to leave this place peacefully,
it’s only Asshole State University at Nowheresville,
and remember to get to the next place peacefully,
it’s only Nowhere State University at Assholesville
and you must travel from place to place for food and shelter.
A few random poems:
- Dust in the Eyes by Robert Frost
- all-days-seem-same.html
- A Bay In Anglesey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Как в поход я собираюсь
- A Coloured Print by Shokei poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Full Fathom Five by Sylvia Plath
- Act of Union by Seamus Heaney
- The Gipsy Trail by Rudyard Kipling
- Her Reply by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Rita And The Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish
- Baltimore Was Always Blue by Michael Salcman
- Feeling Lazy poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- My Heritage
- dawned_again.html
- To Sleep poem – John Keats poems
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 Hedge Of Rubber Trees poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- On The Disadvantages Of Central Heating poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Catalpa Tree On West Twelfth Street poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Nothing Stays Put poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Fog poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Exmoor poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Easter Morning poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Beach Glass poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Silence poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Hermit Thrush poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Hedge Of Rubber Trees poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Catalpa Tree On West Twelfth Street poem – Amy Clampitt poems | Poems and Poetry
- Joe Biden, a Ghazal
- The sky has never seen such a moon
- Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali
- Joe Biden’s Torment
- Insolent couplets
- An Insolent Jew
- Soliloquy In A Tub poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- Reviving My Feminity poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
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
Alan Dugan (1923 – 2003) an American poet, a contemporary classic of American poetry.