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:
- A Work Of Artifice by Marge Piercy
- Uncle Sammy by Will McKendree Carleton
- Epilogue poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Robert Burns: Saw Ye Bonie Lesley:
- Whenever I Go There by W. S. Merwin
- Константин Бальмонт – Молитва
- I too want to ESCAPE by Neelam Sinha
- Look Now On That Adventurer Who Hath Paid by William Wordsworth
- Spanish Johnny by Willa Sibert Cather
- Requiem for Two by Vinko Kalinić
- nonsense verse by Raj Arumugam
- Nightfall In The City Of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
- That Music Always Round Me. by Walt Whitman
- A Sorcerer Bids Farewell To Seem by Sylvia Plath
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
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
- Fancy poem – John Keats poems
- Epistle To My Brother George poem – John Keats poems
- Endymion: Book IV poem – John Keats poems
- Endymion: Book III poem – John Keats poems
- Endymion: Book II poem – John Keats poems
- Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art poem – John Keats poems
- Bards of Passion and of Mirth, written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher’s Tragi-Comedy ‘The Fair Maid of the Inn’ poem – John Keats poems
- Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
- A Thing of Beauty (Endymion) poem – John Keats poems
- When the Assault Was Intended to the City poem – John Milton poems
- Upon The Circumcision poem – John Milton poems
- To the Same poem – John Milton poems
- To The Nightingale poem – John Milton poems
- To the Lord Generall Cromwell May 1652 poem – John Milton poems
- To the Lady Margaret Ley poem – John Milton poems
- To Sr Henry Vane The Younger poem – John Milton poems
- To My Lord Fairfax poem – John Milton poems
- To Mr. Lawrence poem – John Milton poems
- To Mr. H. Lawes on His Airs poem – John Milton poems
- To Mr. Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness poem – John Milton poems
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