A poem by Alan Dugan
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?
The wading, wintered pack-beasts of the feet
slough off, in spring, the dead rind of the shoes’
leather detention, the big toe’s yellow horn
shines with a natural polish, and the whole
person seems to profit. The opposite appears
when dead sharks wash up along the beach
for no known reason. What is more built
for winning than the swept-back teeth,
water-finished fins, and pure bad eyes
these old, efficient forms of appetite
are dressed in? Yet it looks as if the sea
digested what it wished of them with viral ease
and threw up what was left to stink and dry.
If this shows how the sea approaches life
in its propensity to feed as animal entire,
then sharks are comforts, feet are terrified,
but they vacation in the mystery and why not?
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?:
what the sun burns up of it, the moon puts back.
A few random poems:
- Sonnet 70: That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect by William Shakespeare
- The Old Cumberland Beggar by William Wordsworth
- A Goodnight by William Carlos Williams
- Юнна Мориц – Вечерний свет
- Владислав Ходасевич – Ни розового сада
- Такахама Кёси – Иокогама в утро моего возвращения из Франции
- Son Of A Scoundrel by Shel Silverstein
- Николай Карамзин – Из письма к И. И. Дмитриеву (Но что же скажем мы о времени прошедшем)
- Robert Burns: The Author’s Earnest Cry And Prayer: To the Right Honourable and Honourable Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons.
- Untitled #13 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Владимир Британишский – Иван Долгорукой
- In Memoriam A. HIn Memoriam A. H. H.: 56. So careful of the type? but no.: 55. The wish, that of the living whol poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Archaic Torso Of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Robert Burns: Prologue Spoken At The Theatre Of Dumfries: On New Year’s Day Evening, 1790.
- Владимир Степанов – Масленица
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
- Out Of The Window
- On The Bus
- Minoan Porcelain
- Love Song
- Lapr S Midi Dun Faune
- Italy
- Inspiration
- In Uncertainty To A Lady
- Doors Of The Temple
- Darkness
- Crapulous Impression
- Complaint Of A Poet Manqu
- By The Fire
- Books And Thoughts
- Anniversaries
- A Melody By Scarlatti
- A Little Memory
- The Storm
- The State
- The Poor Fisherman
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.