Poems About the Sea Seeking Honest Critique
#sea
Ashore & Adrift
Maybe I'm a square peg
in a round hole
who never could settle on dry land
I should have been born
in a bygone age
when you could sail
around the world
for a dollar a day
A time when old Neptune
knew his place
the trade winds followed the rules
and no out of season
hurricanes
ever shook up the bay
They tell me it is what it is
whatever the hell that means
but I still like salt in my tea
in a round hole
who never could settle on dry land
I should have been born
in a bygone age
when you could sail
around the world
for a dollar a day
A time when old Neptune
knew his place
the trade winds followed the rules
and no out of season
hurricanes
ever shook up the bay
They tell me it is what it is
whatever the hell that means
but I still like salt in my tea
#sea
#rain
#wind
49 reads
0 Comments
Seafolk
Seafolk
to sea,
across sand like a desert,
feet bed down.
We skip between seaweed,
litter, surfers
side-saddle South
surf-mocking waves.
They body board beats,
we turn back and jump them,
foam surrounds hips,
bearded, exposed faces.
I run to clothing,
indented low-tide prints go
in both directions now.
A camera returns,
snaps moments.
There's an unprotected phone,
held by frozen, sodden hands.
Out in grey I watch her,
pink hat, black costume,
blue eyes,...
to sea,
across sand like a desert,
feet bed down.
We skip between seaweed,
litter, surfers
side-saddle South
surf-mocking waves.
They body board beats,
we turn back and jump them,
foam surrounds hips,
bearded, exposed faces.
I run to clothing,
indented low-tide prints go
in both directions now.
A camera returns,
snaps moments.
There's an unprotected phone,
held by frozen, sodden hands.
Out in grey I watch her,
pink hat, black costume,
blue eyes,...
#happiness
#identity
#sea #beach
#sea #beach
60 reads
2 Comments
On the River
FROM FAR BENEATH THE BLANKET OF SLUDGE
THE BELLIES OF BILLIONS OF FISH BULGED
CLUMPS CLUNG TO THE TANGLED STRINGS OF MY NET
AND ALL I COULD HEAR WERE THE GROWLS OF MY GUT
AND THE GROANS OF THE GULLS OVERHEAD
THE BELLIES OF BILLIONS OF FISH BULGED
CLUMPS CLUNG TO THE TANGLED STRINGS OF MY NET
AND ALL I COULD HEAR WERE THE GROWLS OF MY GUT
AND THE GROANS OF THE GULLS OVERHEAD
#river
#sea
39 reads
0 Comments
For Keeps
Take a peep through my peepers
super secret deep secret keepers
seething seeping dripping crying seekers
leaking and breathing salty words
that curl up like lashy lips
dribbling down in rippling whirls
mossy green holes sucking in deep
pockets of burning souls
a rushing torrent of hot coals
ruby rimmed pain,
a chest deep
my heart is under the sea
and my head is playing for keeps
super secret deep secret keepers
seething seeping dripping crying seekers
leaking and breathing salty words
that curl up like lashy lips
dribbling down in rippling whirls
mossy green holes sucking in deep
pockets of burning souls
a rushing torrent of hot coals
ruby rimmed pain,
a chest deep
my heart is under the sea
and my head is playing for keeps
#sea
#despair
66 reads
0 Comments
RAVEN LIGHT
Raven light shone on the tide
He heard her voice inside the dream
Calling him across the waves
Over the dark and untamed sea
He left the bones shivering
Took the dead bus out alone
Under the crisp winter stars
Along deserted motor lanes
Shining black syrupy tar
By fields of deathly silent grain
Over the sullen sleeping hills
Into the nameless creeping towns
Where tired people forgot their names
Through the saddened melting snow
Shining crow light bright and black
Shone across the famished sea
Toward...
He heard her voice inside the dream
Calling him across the waves
Over the dark and untamed sea
He left the bones shivering
Took the dead bus out alone
Under the crisp winter stars
Along deserted motor lanes
Shining black syrupy tar
By fields of deathly silent grain
Over the sullen sleeping hills
Into the nameless creeping towns
Where tired people forgot their names
Through the saddened melting snow
Shining crow light bright and black
Shone across the famished sea
Toward...
#dreams
#sea
#night #shadows
#night #shadows
108 reads
2 Comments
Cascadia
I love that final, dimmest light of day;
That twilight that fights through the overcast
To greet the festive season on display
Amid the brisk pacific ocean blast
Certain to keep me more and more indoors.
But I will sometimes venture forth to breathe
That spirit every northwest nose adores
Whenever the vast waves thalassic seethe
To churn their lucid essence up above
And give the sky that phytoplankton high
Humans rightly associate with love
And inspiration to the day we die...
No more to whiff the fresh cut Christmas...
That twilight that fights through the overcast
To greet the festive season on display
Amid the brisk pacific ocean blast
Certain to keep me more and more indoors.
But I will sometimes venture forth to breathe
That spirit every northwest nose adores
Whenever the vast waves thalassic seethe
To churn their lucid essence up above
And give the sky that phytoplankton high
Humans rightly associate with love
And inspiration to the day we die...
No more to whiff the fresh cut Christmas...
#sea
#storm
#Christmas #NewYear
#Christmas #NewYear
50 reads
2 Comments
A Sudden Sluice of Sea-Ice
The kid drops his bucket and spade / And climbs into the sun.” Nick Cave
Sea-ice shoals are spooned
Into surrogate vessels of feeling,
Tidal grief has sunk emotions
Girl at the point where the pier once lay
Could be disturbed moments away from
Sleeping with the fishes
I turn my back on the portentous vision
And paint the sky red with seagull blood
As diamonds plucked from expensive watches
Temporal is the temptation to crush auld crystal,
Tougher than slate, finger bone br/e/aker
They’d look beautiful abreast...
Sea-ice shoals are spooned
Into surrogate vessels of feeling,
Tidal grief has sunk emotions
Girl at the point where the pier once lay
Could be disturbed moments away from
Sleeping with the fishes
I turn my back on the portentous vision
And paint the sky red with seagull blood
As diamonds plucked from expensive watches
Temporal is the temptation to crush auld crystal,
Tougher than slate, finger bone br/e/aker
They’d look beautiful abreast...
#sea
#nature
#anniversary #LifeCycle
#anniversary #LifeCycle
104 reads
13 Comments
Poems Written on Seaside Postcards (collaboration with Casted_Runes)
Miss Wales, 1982
Oh dear, the palpable fear
News splashed like seagull shit.
The Fingering Wall beside the Fair -
Miss Wales, what did you do?
Giving head to a judge
Swallowed your pride
Senile, semen of bile,
Dethroned to whirl of waltzers.
Stiff sea breeze roughed her candy-floss hair.
Sauce for the Chips
Greetings from sunny Clacton!
This long weekend is on its way:
we met these swingers on the pier
and had our tea with them.
They’re down at the holiday camp, near
where your Becky used...
Oh dear, the palpable fear
News splashed like seagull shit.
The Fingering Wall beside the Fair -
Miss Wales, what did you do?
Giving head to a judge
Swallowed your pride
Senile, semen of bile,
Dethroned to whirl of waltzers.
Stiff sea breeze roughed her candy-floss hair.
Sauce for the Chips
Greetings from sunny Clacton!
This long weekend is on its way:
we met these swingers on the pier
and had our tea with them.
They’re down at the holiday camp, near
where your Becky used...
#sea
#ghosts
#nostalgia #Britain
#nostalgia #Britain
105 reads
3 Comments
driftwood
three. four. five.
i gazed, transfixed,
at the cloudless night sky
as their lights went out.
six. seven.
blackness thickened
as each guiding star
disappeared,
leaving only the memory
of its luminance.
though hypnotised by the moment,
it was time to leave.
cut off from land crew,
i would need to find my way back
before the last star faded.
eight. nine.
i gazed, transfixed,
at the cloudless night sky
as their lights went out.
six. seven.
blackness thickened
as each guiding star
disappeared,
leaving only the memory
of its luminance.
though hypnotised by the moment,
it was time to leave.
cut off from land crew,
i would need to find my way back
before the last star faded.
eight. nine.
#loneliness
#relationships
#sea
#stars
#night
123 reads
6 Comments
Atlantic
Eyes that whip the night
to leave stripes on the back
open wounds that the sea
etched with saline lick
eyes that eviscerate seagulls
swords and fish and sail
eyes that condescend
the horizontal lines of the landscape
eyes nailed to the cross of the poles
who sail a sea so dead
and slowly deep
that there are no eyes that can
see...
PAR
to leave stripes on the back
open wounds that the sea
etched with saline lick
eyes that eviscerate seagulls
swords and fish and sail
eyes that condescend
the horizontal lines of the landscape
eyes nailed to the cross of the poles
who sail a sea so dead
and slowly deep
that there are no eyes that can
see...
PAR
#sea
65 reads
0 Comments
Old Men and the Sea
I’ve seen the fisherman,
that Papa Hemmingway once wrote about
and heard the tales that they’d spin out
at night when they had hung their purse seines
up to dry.
Did they speak of mermaids then
and one-eyed whales,
and willing Cuban whores
who'd rut for days?
Ah yes, they did,
But only to the gullible
who'd stand them drinks
in recompense for being swayed
within the magic of their words.
Oh, how these winking men,
these old salt-lying piscators,
were sly.
that Papa Hemmingway once wrote about
and heard the tales that they’d spin out
at night when they had hung their purse seines
up to dry.
Did they speak of mermaids then
and one-eyed whales,
and willing Cuban whores
who'd rut for days?
Ah yes, they did,
But only to the gullible
who'd stand them drinks
in recompense for being swayed
within the magic of their words.
Oh, how these winking men,
these old salt-lying piscators,
were sly.
#sea
82 reads
0 Comments
Song Of A Sea Siren
Can you hear her calling you, an old voice on the wind,
Listen to the haunting tones speaking of places you have been.
Whispering loudly, stretching out to you, from across the sea,
An ancient voice that will sing softly of your history.
Singing of your loneliness, your hunger and your pain.
Crying to you, 'Come unto me, in your heart I will remain.’
You feel the ribbons pulling you into her sheltering arms,
Knowing there is comfort you, in her beauty and her charms.
You see her face upon the winds and in the pouring rain,
You hear her...
Listen to the haunting tones speaking of places you have been.
Whispering loudly, stretching out to you, from across the sea,
An ancient voice that will sing softly of your history.
Singing of your loneliness, your hunger and your pain.
Crying to you, 'Come unto me, in your heart I will remain.’
You feel the ribbons pulling you into her sheltering arms,
Knowing there is comfort you, in her beauty and her charms.
You see her face upon the winds and in the pouring rain,
You hear her...
#sea
#water
#historical #mermaids
#historical #mermaids
126 reads
4 Comments
DU Poetry : Poems About the Sea Seeking Honest Critique