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 Lilies by Wendell Berry
- Robert Burns: Stanzas On Naething: Extempore Epistle to Gavin Hamilton, Esq.
- Олег Григорьев – Четверорукими ногами
- Human Instrument by Victoria Bukofske
- Psalm 86 poem – John Milton poems
- five moons for earth by Raj Arumugam
- Ок Мельникова – Профессия рок-звезда
- Laws for Creations. by Walt Whitman
- He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats
- Medallion by Sylvia Plath
- To Christina, Queen of Sweden poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- The Jewel Stairs’ Grievance poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Orlando Furioso Canto 1 by Ludovico Ariosto
- No Worst, There Is None. Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- A First Confession by William Butler Yeats
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
- Sonnet 08 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 07 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 06 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 05 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 04 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03: Canzone poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 03 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 01 poem – John Milton poems
- Song On May Morning poem – John Milton poems
- Samson Agonistes poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 88 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 87 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 86 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 85 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 84 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 83 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 82 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 81 poem – John Milton poems
- Psalm 80 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