Submit Your Poems
Get Your Premium Membership

Death Sea Poems | Death Poems About Sea



Details | Ballad | |

The Stone

The Tale below was carved one night,
Upon the Stone, by candlelight
...most won’t believe, but some just might

.                         Preface

Well James made Beth his lovely bride
(And angels smiled, though teary eyed)
...their bodies bound, their spirits tied

Upon her hand, a shimmer shone,
As bright as blood, a ruby Stone 
...and brighter still, as love had grown

Soon James was sent to man a sail
So Beth removed her wedding veil
...her eyes were bright, her face was pale

“Well, I’ll be here when you return”
Said Beth to James, who kissed in turn
...a kiss that made her body burn

.                         BETH’S TALE

1.              The Dream
One night, within a dream deformed,
The cawing of a Crow informed
“...a Ship was stripped where winter stormed

Midst winds and waves the thunder boomed
The Ship of Death was surely doomed
...the sea engulfed, the sea entombed

Your James... denied by Davy Jones!
His spirit gone, his flesh and bones
...are resting now amongst the Stones

2.               The Quest

Awoken by the ebon Wight
And beckoned by the baneful bight
...I left before the morning light

Throughout the realm I rode a roan
Until, in time, I reached the Stone
...where shades and dreams in darkness groan 

While skipping up and down the sky
A missing moonbeam mocked my eye
...enough to make a Swallow cry

For someone stole a star or two

The shadows of the evening swelled
Where demons of the dusk had dwelled
...and in the far, a vesper knelled

The Stone, beneath the sky, stood cold –
Between the runes, a vapour strolled
...a cloak of fleecy fog consoled

A Raven on a branch, enthroned,
Her wings waved once, a wail intoned
...beyond the bay, a banshee moaned

I lay beside the Stone, his bride
I lay beside the Stone and cried
...but were it I, instead, that died

The rainbow of the moon fell dim

Between the willows in the swale
There sang a Bird, a Nightingale
...which left me faint and feeling frail

3.              Contact

I felt him breathe within a breeze
Responding to my anguished pleas
...and leaves blew by abandoned trees

“I miss you too, my darling Beth”
Re-echoed from the Ship of Death
...the future buried in a breath
The Stone lit up a ruby sheen
And clouds were kindled crystalline
...with consequences, unforeseen

Above, the wretched Raven soared
To where the Ship of Death lay moored
...beneath, the icy ocean roared

4.               Release

I’m joined with James beneath the Stone,
Though to the Ship my spirit’s flown,
...for nevermore to be alone

.                         Epilogue

That night the wayward winds were weird 
The Ship of Death had disappeared
...coyotes called and mortals feared

At dusk, the craven shadows crawled
At dawn, the winds of mourning called
...upon the Stone two names were scrawled

The Raven sits, with wings outspread,

.                         Epitaph

Between the sounds, where silence seeps,
Their love lives on and never sleeps
...and yet, the weeping willow weeps

inspired by ~fc~

Wight (obsolete): a supernatural being, creature
Bight: a bay or gulf
Swale: a moist depression in a tract of land

Details | Haiku | |


Now my tendrilled soul,
Has found its pergola-- Christ--
To wind its way up....

Details | Iambic Pentameter | |

Her Soul, the Sea - The Ship

The Ship (Her Soul, the Sea)

Foreshadowing the dusk, appeared immense,
magnanimous the skylines sent the ship,
its blackened sight embossed the thought and sense
of sailors that imagined its long trip.

The ship's black smoke ascended to the skies
from supercilious tall funnels, smog
bestowed its sacrificial offing size
to sovereign Gods that lived inside the fog.

In front of us, the ship's displacement thrilled
approaching thus magnificent the moors;
Her Soul, the Sea, and eulogy that killed,
relentlessly enticed, through dark allures.

The night descended when the ship's steel gaze
examined curious and measured me,
proposing wedlock and a fate of blaze,
my competence, demanding, in the sea.

Across the Straits, young Lady Sadness kissed
with ripping cold my twenty years and eyes,
resembling Her Soul, the Sea, amidst
the Northern winds that howled and life's demise.

© 10-15-2013, G.Venetopoulos, All Rights Reserved
(Iambic Pentameter)

Details | Ottava rima | |


Rampage rumbling water roars dig the shores
Heavy hard they grapple trees and humans
Tumbling turner tides glide no one adore
Frightened humans, they run! Run and run fast!
As they desire to survive ever more
From angry nimbus clouds darkening span
To merry-go-round waves muddy wet skirt
Gnawing so hungry to launch damage pert

Beeping screams a reigning train of terror
Rattling man's safety in viral bellow
The ground shut bullet rush without error
All will see an avalanche fresh fresco
the scathe and cries a full furor mirror
Waiting for hope - the sun's chrome of yellow
Abrupt sea assault bridge to sudden death
Taking all weak and anyone with breath

© O. E. Guillermo
September 28, 2009

*** FROM A DOCUMENTARY I watch about killer tsunami
Sponsor	Giorgio A. V.
Contest Name	Top Gun Poetry - Structured forms - Iambic verse II 
placed 2nd

Details | Free verse | |

Sunshine Flowers

The Daffodil, peeks at the yellow rays of the Morning Sun
Knowing Life is short ,the Dandelion dots the Summer landscape
Goldenrod waits until summer is  nigh o’er before waving elegantly 
                                                 " Blue " 
                                            "  Sunshine "
                  YOUR Liege ALWAYS, LOVE : HGarvey Daniel Esquire
                                                7th Place win

Details | Verse | |

A Starfish In Her Hair

The tide rises within me soaked with failure's longing.
The sea siren's reach, out across the land to me.
The moon added its pull and speaks of not belonging.
I am drawn on astral screams to the deep dark sea.

small waves submerge
my pale ankles to my knees --
gulls cry

The weight of clothes so cumbersome impedes,
Salt sea in, the salt sea out, my life concedes

open eyes stare
into a silty brown brine --
bubbles rise

Sinking-down, passively, sadness abating 
Strands of silvered seaweed, chill, gently beckoning me
my limbs entwined in death's sweet embrace abiding

in her hair --
fog horn

Details | Rhyme | |

Plockton - Wester Ross

The greatest holiday gift I ever received  
Goes back so many, many years
Before my life became turmoiled
And before my tears for fears

I was a child like many out there
Torn, strewn and split of kin
Mother and father in differences
Confused at seven, wearing their same skin

For I was one of the lucky ones
To a Highland Estate I would go
It's on the west coast of Scotland
Where my holidays desired me so

Secretly I internally smiled
For a whisper of where I was heading
To live with a movie star hero
No longer my life was in dreading

We were picked up by a man so fine
His manners were an absolute joy
Regimental he was in his approach
To me, just a seven year old boy

We travelled through the village of Plockton
Crystal clear waters edged to it's shore
I knew from this very moment
Being here ebbed previous family sores

On entering his house I was in awe
Movie pictures came to my view
They were images of James Bond
At seven I was totally through

A voice called to me
Hey James! sit down and I'll tell you me
Still in circles in walking awe
This is what he told thee

My name is Patrick Dalzel Job
In the Second World War I served
But this recognition I bestow
Humbles me to it's deserve

This honour that's been given
Was blessed by a colleague in war
What desired Ian Fleming to be so striven
Possibly, what we were fighting for

We served on the same destroyer
Fighting to make the future free
His tribute, in his novels I became
James Bond, it's incredibly me

Not many seven year olds have stayed with James Bond.
This seven year old Scot's boy has, maybe I learnt?

Details | Sonnet | |

The Rolling Seas

When the time arrives for me to depart
from the sunlit harbors of the living.
Take me aboard a navy fighting ship
and carry me back again to the sea.

Order the boatswain to construct a skid
made of wood and painted with fresh white paint.
Build it to hold a gray weighted coffin
draped by Old Glory with her stars and stripes.

Cruise the coast of my beloved home Whidbey
until full abreast with Ebey’s Landing.
Muster the funeral party astern
Play taps and slide me into the blue drink.   

Let the storm-flecked waves of the rolling sea
take this old sailor to his final peace.

Details | Rhyme | |

A Walk Into Oblivion

I'd hoped the sea remembered me,
accepting me so easily,
as evening peaks and 
the moon draws out the tide.

She wrapped me in her icy shift,
eyes closed shut I'm set adrift,
and through the wash
I'm tossed with every stride.

Caught within her brackish flow
my beating heart begins to slow,
Katrina's won, 
the pain will now subside.

Details | Prose Poetry | |

Sand Castles

Upon a beach I came to stand
And watched a child at play. 
He did while playing in the sand
A point of life convey. 

With scoops and buckets he did build 
A structure tall and grand. 
And to the child the beach did yield 
A castle made of sand. 

But as he left, I do recall, 
Away I did not turn. 
And with the coming night would fall
A lesson to be learned. 

The tide came in, with force did strike, 
The castle could not stand. 
And I was shown how life is like
A castle made of sand. 

And man is but a child at play, 
His works they will not last. 
For all he builds within days
Shall be by time surpassed. 

Each thing we do, Each thing we say, 
Each notion we conceive,
They all to soon shall pass away, 
Yes, this I do believe. 

We leave no mark, we leave no trace
That shall forever stand 
Be sure my friend time will erase
Our days however grand.

Details | Free verse | |

Gone but not forgotten

Our Country  Tis of  thee,  sweet land of Liberty, 
For purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain..
      Their blood is among the plains.
Do You pledge allegiance to the Flag for which it stands,
      One nation In need of God…
             These United States Of America.
     Of those who love it more than life.
For some it is their only gift
   The greatest gift of all.

From Sea to shining sea ,
   They’ve come and they’ve gone.
Some nameless, some known,
We all die,,
    But some never come home



Details | I do not know? | |

Wrath of the Flying Dutchman

  Among the cries of lonesome gull
  A crude cross-slash, grinning skull

  Below the tattered crimson sail
  Those that did weather the fiercest gale
  Noblemen fearfully bow
  Seamen kneel before its prow

  Quiver before the pirate`s might
  A vision of ivory, dark as night
  We slowly conquer waves of teal
  All eyes follow the steady keel

  The ebony ship, its purpose grim
  The treasure hoard hidden within
  Like a glittering blade, swift and sure
  Cursed to never dock at shore

  Remembered in forgotten lore
  Not even the bravest Mortal knave
  Shall escape the wrath of the grave
  So we sail forever-more

Details | I do not know? | |

The Mighty Waves

The aching need to be near
The enduring pain no one could bear
Trying to control the mounting fear
As disaster strucked unaware.

Felt so alone, with no one there
Seeing the love ones drifted apart
But they could only see,
As they became the ocean's heart.

Who could express the lost they had?
Who could feel the heart hurting so bad?
Crying over a lost son who is just a little lad
They could do anything but bring him back.

Country shattered and torn
People left homeless
Mighty wave come and gone
Strong but merciless...

Details | Free verse | |

Bewitchment of Poseidon

How sweet the sound of raging sea!
Long has peace reigned so devoted,
But has it thought of wicked treachery? 
Nay, it had never plotted retribution!

Be that as it may,
I, the goddess of the deep,
Utter these very words of incantation
To suppress the fury that curses my veins!

May the vicious wind kiss the sky,
As rain pours down with shattered glass.
Let waves of thunder lacerate merciless boulders.
If confusion withers the depths of tranquility,

So let it be!

Details | Rhyme | |

The Captain

The captain’s eyes glow ruby red
Atop the steamer’s deck –
A rusted tin can set adrift
By rough Atlantic crests

A crimson emblem sanctions
This whaler’s floating tomb –
A battered vessel bearing
Insignias of doom

Red embers spark to luminate
The old man’s hick’ry pipe,
As he begins to scour the sea
For subtle signs of life

The radar soon shines fiery red,
And deckhands race to find
Their harpoons pointed straight ahead
At monsters in mid-dive

'There she blows!' the captain blares,
His face now beating red;
The hunt is on for him again,
And victory’s ahead

But as the scarlet sun moves west,
Black storm clouds open wide,
And though the weary crew protests,
He keeps the men in line

One well aimed shot is all he needs
To stain the ocean red,
But angry winds and beating rain
Show no signs of an end

The crimson hull begins to quake
As waves come crashing down,
And though the crew is mad with fright,
The captain only frowns

Then finally a sound rings sharp
Amid the roaring surf –
The red harpoon has found its mark
(A whale of massive girth)

'We got her now!' the captain chimes,
His new prize bleeding red,
But with his words a rogue wave climbs
Ten feet above their heads

As they stare up with fear and awe,
They realize their fate –
Atop the blood-red steamer bow,
They know that it's too late

And though the crew and captain pray
For rescue from the squall,
The phantom wave of burgundy
Descends to drown them all.

Details | I do not know? | |


How did I get here?

Amongst the crusty sand and screeching gulls
Where greasy waves spill haplessly
Under an unyielding, gray sky

How did I get here?

Wandering about in pained abstraction
Looking at the rolling, dark waves

Parceled out in hopeless piles 
That crash against this jagged beach

Retreating in thinly, flattened sheets
Only to return newly crashing waves

The endless crash and retreat that tugs at me
Soon vanishes to obscurity in the open sea

Where all things mix and die 
Forever in timeless ritual

Were only my soul to return so easily
And crash again with all its might

Were only my heart lightened 
To join those retreating waves

Then I too could return anew
To cut my little edge on this beach 

And retreat backward to the sea
Where all things mix and die

Details | Senryu | |


Pumping black blood
Sea life falls dead with a thud
Petroleum mud

By Robb A. Kopp
All Rights Reserved © MMX

Details | Rhyme | |

The Sea of Sorrow

All alone in the middle of pain-
drowning in a sea of sorrow -
a demented asylum of unmerciful distress-
that destroys all hopes of tomorrow-

these dark crashing waters-
that are fueled by the rain-
are destine to swallow me-
in this cold sea called pain-

my heart beats uncontrollably-
as I frantically gasp for air-
but my lungs are filled-
and my cries are silenced- 
by the bitter waves of despair-

where is the sun to dries these waters-
and give long awaited relief-
to a soul that's drowning in a deep sea of sorrow-
pulled under by the currents of grief-

Details | Blank verse | |

yellow dress

if i woke up from
on the kitchen table
and saw her standing
there at the fridge
pouring tomato juice
into her bloody mouth,
wearing nothing
but that yellow dress
she cut in half
last halloween after walking
to the river where she
said the most beautiful things
about dancing with the moon
right before throwing up
something black & fleshy-pink
on the rock where i was sitting,
& we walked back to eat
a fried egg standing
next to the stove where
she would light her cigarettes
swigging shady ladys, silently
listening to my developing dissatisfaction
& some sort of lingering love,
if she was here right now,
staring blankly at flies buzzing,
i wouldn't be surprised,
even if it has been three years since she died.

Details | I do not know? | |

Hopeless and Filled With Heartache

Tell me why doe’s the wind blow,
When it seems that almost anything can over power this boat,
A day of innocence equating beauty,
For tomorrow may fall,
And today is already gone,
I've decided that tonight is the night,
That I set love aside,
This whole time we're provoking each other in a blinding violence,
The ship rocked and I plummeted into the sea,
And you dove after me,
But now you know that I’m cold,
The mast snaps and the ship floods,
We wash up on a shore and you seek us shelter,
Crying out my name you try to resuscitate me, 
Keep your hands on my chest and wait for a beat,
I'll keep your trust in my arms and pain in my feet
We will all fall in the end.
As the time to rise approaches
No one will take responsibility
So tell me why does the wind blow?

In this poem i give credit to 4 bands 
for assisting me with the words 
I could not find.

1.Our Last Night
2.As I Lay Dying
3.Dance Gavin Dance
4.As Blood Runs Black

I Hope you enjoyed it

Details | Quatrain | |

In the Sand

He walked down to the sea, lonely and bored
then dips his hand in the warm ocean brine.
Forty years she was the one he adored,
so he kneels to pray for her, one more time.

He spells out her name in the smooth beach sand
then he watches a wave wash it away.
Whispers "Goodbye" just as he starts to stand
he wishes there was more that he could say.

A gentle rumble as breaks a small wave
he can smell her perfume as on the breeze.
He has not the strength to visit her grave
self-pity and pain is all that he sees.

Watches seagulls as they swarm a shrimp boat
as it makes a turn back toward the bay.
Hollow and empty he feels without hope
and wishes a wave would wash it away.

Details | Elegy | |


My heart egos and my life drained from me
Simple life I live, I act as I know all
But I know not, no, not even a little
I earnestly seek for recognitions
But my life and my heart is a hole.
An empty vessel, soulless, loveless

I have been succumb by the pain of heart aches
I have become a broken man,
Know not what my future holds
I envy those who went before me, who were acknowledge

I hold on to the little shred of hope in me, 
I am being drowned by my own sorrows.
Let not death come to me in misery and despair, 
For life is full of joy and full of sorrows.

Love me, as who would love a stranger from nowhere.
Let my sorrows be taken away by the love of many
But at last, no one would.
Don’t cry for me, for no one knows me
“Why is the name not written?”
It is not written because I am nothing
Don’t shed a tear for the stranger such as me.

Life is like a dream on a calm sea,
As the captain gracefully steer and gently moves its rudder.
The passenger puts their lives in his hands,
A calm sea is the heaven of any sailor.
“So, where is my captain?”
The wind blows every so gently,
But my heart sinks gently into the sea;
Who will mourn for the stranger?

Drowned from my grief, 
“Where are thy words that calm the raging storm?”
Ay! I have no peace even in my passing.
I have not thy words of command,
For my faith has been tossed away by the hating winds,  

Only thy mercy will guide me to the third heaven!
Let thy words be the honey drops for mine, 
As this world knows only lies
Blinded by greed and lust, 
They seek only to destroy of what they fear.
And my sorrows are tossed away by thy promises.
For thy compassion for lost sheep is great.

"Have I found peace?"
And my salvation has come
When I died with thy Words of truth

Details | Rhyme | |

Kingdom Lost

In summertime, the ivy climbs,
and hides the castle wall.
The king dreams of late,
that the sea is so great,
and yet - his boat is so small.
As swift as a fox and
dark as a raven on wing,
seven hundred soldiers march  
into the valley of the king.
Long overdue, a battle ensues
flanking the powers that be.
Children cry, and good men die, 
the monarch is now on his knee…
Soon the horsemen alone 
try to maintain the throne.
But the long way around
is the shortest way home.
The evening is filled
with chaos and smoke,
and the kingdom is 
stunned by it all…
Soon the sun will go down,
and in spite of his crown, 
the king will undoubtedly fall…
His rival’s strength
was mistaken,
by a king overtaken,
his life is now but a pawn.
His authority lifted,
the power has shifted –
an era of glory is gone…
Copyright © 2013

Details | Iambic Pentameter | |

Smoke - Charades

Smoke (Charades)

Abaft the weather bent the time
outside the ship, around the shore
we saw its smoke, in airy climb,
to fumigate from now to yore.

The fume was rising from the two
tall funnels covering its shape
with darkened soot, while dead its crew
was calling us behind its drapes.

The smoke was dancing back and forth
persuading us to move and sway;
Ironic shined the star of North
reluctant breeze slid down the brae.

We thought it was the ship's horn or
three sailor ghosts that danced charades,
behind the smoke, our nightly chore
had mimicked them outside of Hades.

The soot was covering the land,
some scattered lights that blinked and cried,
diffused away at its demand
until forgotten, sank and died.

We followed thence, the engines' chug
to dance around two skyward lines
where hung the ship's torn island flag
and our charades that drowned in brines.

© 10-14-2013, G. V., All Rights Reserved
(Iambic Tetrameter)

Details | Free verse | |

If Old Men Fought

An old man looking out his door,
gaze fixed on a distant shore,
reminiscing to a time, not of happiness,
or, the prospect of a bright future,
to when he was sick to his very core,
to when as a youth, he went to war

A time before infallibility had meaning,
patriotism and bravado the craze,
the future was still unknown,
vigor for life at its all time high,
a time for romance, partying, buying,
no thought of pain, deformity, dying

Too young to understand or question,
ship to foreign shore, medals abound,
will impress the girls next time in town,
sacrifice not temporary,
forever more,
a legacy etched into a wall, few will remember,
flesh shredded, burned, torn,
families mourn

A time, when he willingly went to war,
will happen no more,
all lost in youth, now unrelenting,
no blind obedience,
minimal risk,
long life, his number one ambition

As he turns back from the door,
he thinks of the youth,
here now, soon no more,
lessons never learned,
the call to war,
to common the roar,
complacency the mood,
another generation removed

The old man agonizes
over what was originally not known,
war is preventable,
life too precious to waste,
the solution simple,
his vision, maybe too late

Send old men to the front to fight,
arthritis, heart disease, poor eyesight,
let the youth enjoy their life,
his near over, its only right

Send old men, to the front, to fight
ask them to give up their life,
patriotism and bravado, still alive,
will and desire would not last the night,
old men do not rush to death in their twilight,
failure inevitable, the old man smiles,
knows he's right

Wars not possible,
if old men, are sent to fight

Details | Rhyme | |

The Social Norm

But your soul's forever lost to them without persistent dedication.
You waded in their welcome waters, thought it nice and cool
But now I'm sure you've figured out you're lost in sorrows pool
So take it from who knows you best
Someone who has passed this test:


Details | Free verse | |

The Old Salt

when he was needed most.

A time that is now gone forever.

When patriotism was not just a word
by what men lived and judged the worth of each, 
a man who lived a life most of us cannot comprehend. 

and begins anew in the heavenly fleet. 

Sail on Sailor into your unaccompanied tour,
we salute you.

What greater honor, that when a man moves forward, 

A defender, protector, supporter, victor, a warrior, 
and men were made of steel.


Those of us who remain behind,
remember, and will continue to remember, 
because he now resides forever in our hearts.

a beret draped just above the eye, 
as he draws upon his pipe, 
quietly he waits.
The guardian of heaven’s gate.

Details | Limerick | |

The young man from Dover

There was a young man lived in Dover
And he was the son of a rover
He fell into the sea
Cause clumsy was he
A shark came and it was all over.

Details | Rhyme | |


Waters rise, engulf the land and other ruses
we devise to block their flow, to stem the tides.
Anxious, we are left to ride the waves
on fragile barques bereft of sails.
Such flimsy arks (mere barrel staves
and baling wire) float up the sides
of great sea-risers, like defiant snails
awash in slime. In time, seabrine looses
collective holds on congealed excuses
and in salt solution we dissolve.
To silver fishes we soon devolve
while worlds and stars, giants and dwarfs,
fade from mind like boats from wharfs.
And when to darker depths we dive,
will fishes miss us? Shall we survive
apart from sky, from air, from dry?
When at last we gasp and die
will crabs cavort? Can fishes cry?

Details | Couplet | |

Beachside Food and Drink Slinks















Details | Tanka | |

Jaws in real life

Master of the sea
Smells blood from miles away
Swims with dominance
Sharp serrated teeth devours
Naive humans viciously

Details | Free verse | |

Her Heart Is The Sea

Her eyes never leave
the moonlit horizon.
She will wait
an eternity, if she must.
She paces
as the tides
crash forth, then recede
back to the ocean.

Only memories
return here.
The ship departing
from the docks,
the sun sparkling
on the water,
a pair of dolphins
through the surface.
They had seen it
while in each other's arms.
Yet, now they
are distant

The sky turned ominous,
dark waters
engulfed the ship.
Everything went dark,
they lost sight
of each other
beneath the churning waves.
Her lungs
filled with salt water
as she desperately
gasped for air,
for life.

She drowned
the same day he did.
Her soul
washed ashore
along with her
cold, lifeless body.

She remains
haunting the coast.
Her feet leave
no imprints
in the sand.
She moves
with the wind,
drifts upon it, 
like sea-foam
atop the waves.
The dark water
through her
transparent form.

Her spirit's heart glows,
shining outward
like a lighthouse beacon
showing him the way
to her arms.
She is waiting
for him
to rejoin her.
He will return
just as she has.

Written by: Kelly Deschler    October, 10th, 2013  

nette onclaud's contest - "Take Two"
This was originally written for Poetess Darkly's contest - 
"Heart Of The Sea"

Details | Iambic Pentameter | |

Sheffield knife

Sheffield knife

We stood across the ship's black painted brim,
forever weak appeared the beacon's light,
the night imperfect seemed; the stars shone dim,

The birds' were singing in the mauve of dawn,
notes resolution of communion's chrism,
the images back then, became my dome,
and Hades' kingdom glassy rainbow's prism.

Life ornamental was, fast to dissolve,
advancing wilt, recall of distant stare,
for none was this equation to resolve,
a wine's red spill, and stars' marquee of  prayer.

( I'll stay away from Aden's doleful coast
assuming that earth's blooming fields are mine,
upon the wharf a flash and I became a ghost,
a challenging recall and blade's bold shine -

- I do recall our sweetest Sunday feasts,
the teenage dreams and blue noon skies,
our bicycling along the shoreline's mists,
the nightly gatherings, our talks and smiles.)

© 04-29-2011, G.Vevetopoulos
(Iambic Pentameter)

Details | Triolet | |

cerulean loss

her alabaster lips did drown
the sea with rage that fateful dawn.
how beautiful with skin so pale,
her alabaster lips. did drown
the roar of waves and shredded sail.
Poseidon's wrath on human pawn.
her alabaster lips did drown.
the sea with rage that fateful dawn...

Details | Etheree | |


The sky
By the ocean.
Blue lips of the drowned.
Bodies trapped, never found.
Blue songs sang to mourn the dead.
Souls in sorrow coping, hoping.
Blue water spout casting people out.
Empty graves with flowers the hue of blue.

© 2012 Connie Marcum Wong

Details | Sonnet | |

Sea of Unrest


Details | Iambic Pentameter | |


Here I stand, upon a lonely cliff; 
Outcropped above glittering white-wash waves. 
The swash of the sea and the vivid smell 
Challenges my deepest inner demons.

Here I stand- at the end of the world; 
A single step between myself and peace, 
A surge of sweat, a splash of deep water, 
And no need to run from sadness no more.

Is it truly selfish to fall to peace?
To leap from pain and a constant heartache, 
Into vast waters of tranquility?
Are you not selfish to keep me here? 

I stand here upon this lonesome rock, 
And I gaze at the empty horizon; 
My life unfolds as I step to the edge,
And in a split and empty second; peace.

Though I did not leap, fly, nor fall forward.
For if you could feel as I can feel now;
See life as clear and smell as I can smell; 
You would find purpose in those white-wash waves.

Details | Pantoum | |

Churn and Chide


Beneath the coldest spray of greenish hue 
Solitude lies entombed in rolling waves 
And Death a word we try hard to construe
While staring into depths of azure graves 

Solitude lies entombed in rolling waves 
Speaking a shyly rhythmic soliloquy
While staring into depths of azure graves 
As sirens softly sing, slightly off key 

Speaking a shyly rhythmic soliloquy
Waves cascading on a dark distant shore 
As sirens softly sing, slightly off key 
Trailing symphonies of Poseidon’s lure

Waves cascading on a dark distant shore 
The cadence rising with the evening tide 
Trailing symphonies of Poseidon’s lure 
Churning now as Death’s laughter bursts inside

The cadence rising with the evening tide 
While whorls of seaweed fan like silken hair 
Churning now as Death’s laughter bursts inside 
And turbulent eyes fill with naught but fear

While whorls of seaweed fan like silken hair 
Whipping froth into an ominous smile 
And turbulent eyes fill with naught but fear 
Yet the sea remains serene all the while 

Whipping froth into an ominous smile 
And death a word we try hard to construe 
Yet the sea remains serene all the while 
Beneath the coldest spray of greenish hue 


Regretful tears will crash upon life’s shore 
As our thoughts shimmer like a coral reef 
Sea’s immenseness shaking us to the core 
Unfathomable, much like our own grief 

As our thoughts shimmer like a coral reef 
Searching shortening days for so much more
Unfathomable, much like our own grief
Reminding us of what life holds in store

Searching shortening days for so much more
Sea’s beauty flirting with our roving eye
Reminding us of what life holds in store 
Beneath our very last, delicious sigh

Sea’s beauty flirting with our roving eye 
As Dolphins jump towards horizon’s crest
Beneath our very last, delicious sigh
With Starfish chiding our now silent chest

As Dolphins jump towards horizon’s crest
Sharks swim swiftly past like a phantom thief
With Starfish chiding our now silent chest
The joys of life we find are all too brief

Sharks swim swiftly past like a phantom thief
As ghosts of sailors drift upon the waves
The joys of life we find are all too brief 
Too soon we'll lie in still watery graves

As ghosts of sailors drift upon the waves
Sea’s immenseness shaking us to the core
Too soon we'll lie in still watery graves
Regretful tears will crash upon life’s shore 

Details | Free verse | |

Barefoot Dream

Barefoot Dream  ©

A pair of slippers dance along 
the surf line, dank chill seeps into 
supple leather 

Laughter and joy stream out 
across the endless waves, a 
day’s freedom from society’s 

Stripped of sock and slip’r 
toes clinch and let loose the 
sandy floor as it shifts and moves 
as in a dance, vanishing under 
her foot
Dancing on the heads of 
ancient warriors, lost sailors, 
drown’d lovers

Foamy wet tickles the ankles, 
grains rasp and scrape a 
hardened heel 

Cleansed in the salty froth, tiny 
secreted bones ache with 
numbing cold 

Sodden cotton slaps the calves
A drenched, forever sound as 
the grasp of death’s hand brings 
her down… 

down, down into the blue-black 
arms of the cold sea

Trisha Sugarek
Butterflies and Bullets 

Details | Elegy | |

Gaze Fixed Out To Sea

I wish to die By the Teak rail Of a salt weathered deck A poetic death you see… Wrap’t snug as a bug Warm woolen shawl round my neck With my ol’ grizzled dog at my knee I’d like to be found Eyes wide open and round In a rocker of wicker Gazing out to sea. What better a death An ol’ poet’s last breath Could there possibly …and poetically be?…

Details | Verse | |

Solar Love


Details | Dramatic monologue | |

The Pride of the King - from the epic 'The peasant and the prince'

Let not the pain of death enter my body
I the Pharaoh, son of the gods
Here my wife, who is the daughter of the Nile
The daughter of Isis sits beside my throne,
Is she not beautiful?

I live and roam the abode of the gods,
In eternity I stay with the majesties
Of the immortal gods
Mortality has no hold of me
I alone carry the staff of Osiris,
Behold! I judge thy weight of the heart,
With that of the golden feather
Thoth that measures thy heart shall tell me of thy hearts content.
If I find thy heart lighter than the feather;
And find thy honesty,
I shall let you enter the heaven of the gods and goddesses.
If not, than, a beast to devour thee, waits for the dishonest.
Know me by my throne, made of gold
I am cloth with ornaments made of jade and sapphire,
White silk of clothing, with jewels from far away lands.
Anyone that dear look down upon me shall die
And those that despise me, shall fine their homes burned down,
with fires from heaven.

Who am I? I have asked thee
Look at Anubis, the son of Nephthys bringer of death.
Do you await him to bring me great sorrow?
Shall he warp me with a yard of cloth?
Shall I find peace in death and my fate be judge by him?
If so, I have a place among them. 
My afterlife is in paradise, their awaits a bundle of joy
With music of the immortal, with harps, lutes, lyres
And servants to tend to my every need. 

But even if I die, the weight of mine own heart, shall be as light as a feather.
For I know mine own honesty.
As I sail across the sandbank of Apophis,
I have my guide, Ra, the god of the sun to light my path
No monstrous serpent of chaos shall wreck his boat,
The boat in which, I am in.

So, I ask thee, traveler from the west
What is thy business with a god?
Look at my palace, is it not magnificent?
Has is not, the decoration and flowers that surpasses all human designs?
I have built these with rocks
Sands was the foundation of my legacy,
Shall all things compare to that of the passed days?
I carry the burden of my glory, and yes, it is heavy.
But will such foundation as the sand be strong enough to hold against the tide? 

Love is abiding that is true, but only in those who welcomes it.
My love for my beautiful wife, oh! How well have I been treated
With love from her is better than any pleasure a man can have.
Faithful to the gods or my wife? that I know not.

Details | Rhyme | |

floating brim

An eerie spell recites with Auster, 
but none should listen to the gust
above the cargo stars foster
the ship sheers off, in night's dark cast.

We hark the words - a haunted song, 
the wind recites through our whisper, 
upon Atlantic's route lifelong
an enigmatic big dipper.

Atop the bridge acoustics sharpen, 
eerie's the steersman whistling song, 
- juke box and liquor in Antwerpen
where he was not much right or wrong.

Astounding flash - the blade was drawn, 
for cause nigh naught, wrong talk offends
on brines his ghost shall trip foregone 
in southern winds, his Hohner blends.

We pass alargo from Cape Coast, 
that blade's fast draw forwards the past, 
an end aghast, a moonshine ghost
will haunt my sleep, invite me last.

Our cargo cuts through bluish drape, 
our diesels hum - besetting rhythm; 
in mists envisioned smiling gate,
slowly engulfs our floating brim.

© 10-20-2011

Details | Haiku | |

Frozen in Time

shipwreck victims whisper from the ocean floor frozen in time

Details | Rhyme | |

Midnight Massacre

Darkness swells the from depth of the sea,
waves crashes against waves,
the mad sea roars and vomits vengeance, 
it belches and yawns at the sound of her name.

They have been drifting for many days,
entranced with panic, fear and delusion,
 gripping tightly to the edge of their boat,
drifting deeper into her venomous  throat.

I can hear echoes and screams,
I can sense desperation from the extreme,
Oozing bumps on the surface of my skins,
I just don’t know where to begin.

The horrors of the sea hisses and lashes,
It flings and tosses their boat in a ball.
chopping and folding up blood red water,
preparing for the horrific slaughter.

She emerges from the depth of the sea,
hoping for a grand jubilee,
flattering  her six meter coat,
straining under five thousand pounds,
she swims violently towards their boat.

She grinds everything in her path,
and tries to tear their boat apart,
raw meat grinds with flesh,
flesh pounding with flesh,
flesh devouring flesh.

Six women and four men ,
bring the jubilee to an end,
armed with guns, rockets, and knives,
they were determined to survive,

They drifted closer to the shore,
but she bust the door of their little boat
they ripped the side of her six meter coat,
but she managed to stay afloat.

They aim directly at her throat 
it misses, and burns the side of her coat.
She growls and barks, rises and spins,
and prances at their boats with a sudden fling.

Barrage of bullets puncture her gut,
she howls and groans but didn’t give up,
she overturns  their  speeding boat,
and catches them under her strouth.

She rips apart their arms and legs,
and have supper with their bleeding heads, 
she grinds them in her toothless jaws,
no one could escape her formidable  claws.

She dances and hisses, 
Splashes and dashes,
Smashing the boat with her sinister tail,
and quenches her thirst with their blood stained veil.

Loretta escaped that grisly moment,
and grips tightly to the overturned boat,
with the knife aiming directly at her throat.
death faces death, fear faces fear,
the midnight massacre begins.

Slashing and piercing,
stabbing and gorging,
Loretta’s fear dissolves in thin air.
her bullet rigged body and rocket torn Jaws,
caused  Loretta to gazed in awe,
one single knife, and one single throw,
Loretta empties her swollen gut with a single blow.

They came out one by one,
married men and single women, 
severed arms and broken legs,
and corpses of missing children.

Pretty women and wealthy men,
leak out of her bleeding gut,
maggot oozing out of their flesh. 
What really happens before their death?

Skeleton fingers wrapped around barbie dolls,
some still holding their little beach balls,
carrying their little  buckets and spade,
they must have being playing before they strayed.

Man against beast, beast against man
the midnight massacre was where it all began.

                                                                                       ©2013 Christine Phillips

Details | Haiku | |

An Untitled Triad of Haikus

As the tide rushes
Forward, brown black seaweed strands 
Wrap the graceless leg
Silver scaly fish 
Catch the light of the sun as
Silken drops of sea

Slide off the pale hand 
Lifting to wave to those on
the retreating shore

Details | Dramatic Verse (Verse Drama) | |

Black Sea Of Hate

I have no desire to swim in your black sea of hate 
Nobody is born with a broken soul it happens along the way 
You push your way into this world free from sin 
You came with all your innocent traits 

I have no desire to sit at your table 
Where the linen is whiter than an untouched 
Blanket of snow on Monsanto Lake 
neither will I partake! 

Your Gleaming Gorham silver wares Clusters 
Like hanging mountain grapes shapes 
Yet, I have no desire to swim 
Or to sit at your table of hate 

Kids up north blood stain the streets while
The Politicians laughed over $2000 plate’s dinners 
Who is guarding the gates of hell?

The World of Politic sure is wild!

Details | Pastoral | |

Gunwale shades in the breeze

Gunwale shades

The breeze evoked the fading light;
opaque the molecules of air
along the brae addressed the night,
returning beasts and men to lair.

The faded words' transmitted strain,
defined on memories to last,
unable phase was to obtain
responses to their quests' recast.

Chrysanthemums that turned to shades,
perfumed the night on minds to nest,
she laughed! (His entity evades
to be night-solitude's best guest).

Bespoken vows were said to meet
inside the breeze; the seas' motif,
upon the maps, trips incomplete
became, a shoreline and a reef.

Neglected was their feast of e'er
- the passing breeze increased years' count,
He made her laugh his solemn flare,
and builder of a lone surmount.

The Sea, like mistress hence embraced
one soul of nautilus that fled 
inside the breeze while dark had graced
night's gunwale cold that hurt and bled.

Her wraith induced his soul to free,
invited dancer to death's fair;
eternal guest and cedar tree
while void in front absorbed his stare. 

© 08-24-2012, G. Venetopoulos
(Iambic tetrameter)

Details | Triolet | |

On Cliff's Edge

upon the cliffs I tarry ~ still as sunset bids adieu to day I feel so cold, a deadly chill upon the cliffs I tarry ~ still so desolate, bereft of will with trepidation, feet of clay upon the cliffs I tarry ~ still as sunset bids adieu to day. whose evil spell did weave such pain that took this heart, and bled my soul I've lost too much, and can't remain whose evil spell did weave such pain my morrow's hopes all died in vain for death I know the bell doth toll whose evil spell did weave such pain that took this heart, and bled my soul. the sea sings dirges of my fate my skirts form wings, blown by the wind the waves collide on rocks that wait the sea sings dirges of my fate a voice begs 'no', but it's past late I brace and leap; soul's suff'ring's end the sea sings dirges of my fate my skirts form wings, blown by the wind.
© 11/10/2011 Lucretia Crouse Triolet is an eight line poem where the first line is repeated for line four and the first two lines are repeated as a refrain for lines seven and eight. Triolet Rhyme Scheme: A B a A a b A B Written in iambic tetrameter (8-syllable lines)

Details | Epic | |

Young Cronus


My father decided he wanted his children		
buried, and left for dead.
But my mother, Gaea, both fair and true,
spared her children instead.
So I met with my selfish father,
where, by Gaea, we both were led,
and, holding the sickle she gave me,
this is what I said:

"Hello, dearest father.
I'm glad that you came. After years without you, 		
I know how you feel about us.				

"But we are not here to argue.
I came here to say good bye."
He knew farewells were in order,
but he did not yet, know why.
I explained our situation,
as my siblings stood idly by,
saying, "If you don't want to have children,
you cannot be swayed, so I won't even try.
But its too late to go back now.
You cannot erase my family and I.
So that leaves us only one option,
and that's why I'm saying goodbye."

"Goodbye, worthless father.
I'm glad that you came.  Now pay what is due. 			
We know how you feel about us,
and now you know how we feel about you."

He regretted the seeds he had sewn,
so, in charity, I reaped his remorse.
I swung my sickle pure and precise,
with such fervent and furious force;
His blood was late to react to the wound,
and that which was lost by means of divorce,
unable to ever return to it's source.

	Together with most of my brothers and sisters,
	there seemed to be no better fit
	to the bottomless Tartarus pit.

"Goodbye, worthless father.
We knew how you felt about all of us,

"Farewell forever, father.
I'm glad that you're gone, and I'll never atone.		
Know that your fear was what you created,

Details | Epic | |

The Devil Philosophy

The way, in which I lived, so shall I die? 

The sea salt washes up against rocks 
and bleach the stones white 
Like a genuine pearly stone. That when I knew 
Someone was mourning a death. 

The party was going strong 
The doorbell rang. In that moment 
Everything changes. 
Speak low, lean low 
Turn down the tempo 
A sudden death; another wealthy mortal man 
Took his last breathe. 
Did he pass the test? 
Bending over and sniffing the coke 
By the mountain load; 

 Cocaine scattered all over the desk. Money burnt 
How you lived, so shall you die? 
Why cry. That was your life. 
He became the cocaine and 
His mind became retarded 

The salty breeze massages my scalp 
As they soul jump into to the sea 
longing to be cleanses 
Speaking low, leaning low their noses 
Are on fire: another lost soul

Bolivian marching powder 
Drip, drip drops of blood 
Vanish out to sea. 
a different kind of philosophy
The Devil philosophy

Details | Free verse | |

Neptune's Concubine

Last night 
The heavens caught fire.
Each planet and star
Was seduced by the treacherous Earth
And each in turn died in flame 
Attempting to possess her. 

From this destruction
Neptune alone was spared.
And he smothered us all
With an oblivion cape
All tied up in tide
And hung with mermaids.

Last night
I slept on a tall, sugary cake
That was being blown 
This way and that
By the twentieth wind.
And I dreamed.

I dreamed
Of being rocked to sleep
By divine arms that smelled of rain.
And I dreamed
Of falling to the ground
And becoming the ocean's disciple.
Last night
I died and it felt familiar.
I smothered quietly in marzipan
And misty blue breaths that choked.
I sang a song of nautilus shells.
I learned a tale of universal law.

And all this time I lay still
Upon the back of the plum cake.
He held me as I wove a tapestry
Of hungry planets
And immortal assassins
He held me as I dreamed on.

Details | Rhyme | |

And Goliath Said

Contractual agreements with publisher caused DELETION

Details | Free verse | |

About a Dolphin

The life is blooming slowly
at the white candles –
chestnut trees under my window.
In the sea angles the transparent cupolas
are rising –
dolphin tombs.
No, not for the first time
life is blooming in death,
by the eyes of the beauty
frozen by the jump…
A picture –
the wavy movement
of the brush, by the hand

The Sea is dead.

This is a link that shows a dead dolphin with bullets from a vending machine in the Black Sea.

Details | Lyric | |

Drifting Mainly

You belong to me mate 	 ( Intro )
And that be that!
Get on board
And grab your hat!

The ship was aghast at its new passenger	( Verse )
Like disdain for the lives that they now left behind,
Newcomers were scarce 
And they never would last
But I held up my chin nice and high.

The bloke who took me screamed	( Pre-chorus )
“Mop up the deck we’ve got things to do!” 
But I said sir, 
I’m just a boy and don’t know what’s to do.

And he said		( Chorus )
“Drifting mainly
Sailin the shores
Taking what’s mine 
And leaving what’s yours
Cause you know, we ain’t dead yet.”

Taking the seas for more than eight moons
We found islands and loot
That was bigger than most.
The taste of sea air 
With its wind in my hair
Took me away to this new life I lead.

After mopping the deck 
He grabbed my hand and screamed
 “Steer this ship boy!”
But I said sir,
I’m just a lad and don’t know where to go.

So the crew yelled	( Chorus )
“Drifting mainly
Sailin the shore
Taking what’s mine 
And leaving what’s yours
Cause you know, we ain’t dead yet.”

Surprising to me 
Was my unshaven face
The captain looked on 
And smiled with grace,
We stopped at a place 
Where the women were loose and didn’t mind
If we took a peak.

We got places to be and some people to rope,
So grab that sword and drop that mop
Cause you’re no longer a boy in my eyes.”

I practiced the duel with the men in the crew
The captain took eye to my devilish pride,
And he took me aside and said 
 “Even in death I’m gonna miss you boy 
But don’t let it strike you 
Or kill your spirits
Cause even time can beat out the Grim.”

Then in the darkness came fire and screams,
Our vessel had stopped after fourteen years,
The crew fought hard and beat most of the men
But now, my Captain was dead.

We took the new ship watching ours sink deep
Saying goodbye to our drowning escape,
The crew turned towards me and asked
“What do we do?” and I smiled,
And they did to.

And we yelled    ( Chorus )
“Drifting mainly
Sailin the shores
Takin what’s mine
And leaving what’s yours
Cause you know, we ain’t dead yet.”

Details | Chant Royal | |

The Devil's Thief

Arranged in paradise, by suffering's fate,
to have no end, to be alone and wait,
it was her love, acceptance came so fast
she had no time to think it might not last,
as he, the sailor left, she loved too late;

He'd waited on the dock so long he grew
to be inspired by something she won't do,
'twas just a recognizing love is there
the reaching out for what is everywhere,
but love for her was something all so new;

the sail was set and ties that bound the ship
were heaved away, and thus began the trip,
upon the ocean, far into the sun,
to where the keel was loose and let to run
and sailed right on to where the moon would dip.

She on the shore, he on the watch at three,
both dreaming dreams not ever let to be
but absence makes the heart more fonder yet,
and out of sight means not they will forget;
the ship sailed on, uncharted was the sea;

the gale that came and sank him to the reef,
took from the shore the lady in her grief,
and they were thus to marry, in the sea,
united 'neath the waves, eternally,
depriving love from time, the devil's thief.
© RON WILSON aka vee bdosa the doylestown poet

Details | Blank verse | |


The crying ocean weeps fresh tears
The vacant beach so moist is gone
The sea swells like a throbbing cry
Caught in the throat of loneliness
Nature, tormented by time
Erodes herself and ebbs and flows
With the emotional tides of the moon
As the dawn breaks, fragments, scatters and is gone
The lone nascent emotion sparked within the soul
Embraces the new, the unpredictable
With all sense of time and order lost to the waves
Man falls into new nothingness
And finds sanity among the seasoned sighs of the tide
The warning whispers of the sea
The crying ocean weeps fresh tears
The nascent horizon is swallowed
The sea swells in a throbbing cry
Caught in the throat of despair

It is beautiful

Details | Haiku | |

Nature, the Destroyer

Nature,  the destroyer

Unsuspecting  morn,
All  else  left  save  old and kids,
In  fisherfolks’  huts.

A rogue wave crashes
Into the coast ,  flattening
Them  out  in a flash.

Bodies, four hundred,
Dumped and under debris,  rot.
Town stinks for a month.

By: S.Jagathsimhan Nair,  11th mar 12
For: PD’s " Nature the destroyer-haiku" contest
Ps:  Based on the devastation caused by Tsunami ‘o4 at a town called “ Colachel”, the worst affected, not far away from my place. 

Details | Monorhyme | |

Why Another Oil Spill


Details | Sonnet | |

The Sea Mist

Here we are, amidst
the roaring chaos,
Amidst the turmoil
of a sanguine sea
Where lightning
strikes furiously
Encumbering clouds
of serenity.

The wind has torn
your bones to white
And left your hearts
to the mercy of
And as the last
surviving light
We shall persevere
with each failing

Behold! The Ocean's
Womb is wide open!
The Terror of the
Depths beckons
Your wives shall
smile for your
courage is proven.
Let us strike the
waves with ardour
and might!

Only a tombstone
over the cliff
For Man had defiled
what was already

Details | I do not know? | |

Yonder Setting Sun

I have taken my final arrow,
My race has now been run
I’ll depart from here and go in peace
Into yonder setting sun

I will climb aboard the ship of death 
And cross the chilling tide
I will go to yonder setting sun
As on this ship I will ride

I will not fear what lies ahead,
Or what I cannot tell
I’ll stand upon the bough and wave
To this life farewell

I will now close my eyes in death,
Weary from the race I’ve run
As upon the bough of death’s ship I will ride
To yonder setting sun

Details | Free verse | |

A Blue Boy's Death Wish

A fragile mind breaks 
Wake upon the rock laden shores
A muffled heart begs to echo
Whispers lost among a velvet chamber

Dusk comes premature time and again
Dropping the curtain on an optimistic sunrise
If you never witness dawn
There is no tomorrow

Always the dreamer aches
Never awake to make real what he desires
The restless corpse walks blind
Dead ends seem fitting for one of the kind

Lost in the labyrinth of strangling vines
Love is the motive and the weapon
Taking root in throats dry from weeping
Sprouts of amnesia in place of smiles
A garden called heartbreak holds onlookers captive
The comfort takes hold, sets in the bones weary of searching
A plea for rest lands on deaf ears

The hollow boy tires of himself
The last request he will ever make
"End me"
Lost and tired
He wishes to be weak no more

Details | Free verse | |


Beneath the ocean, below what we know
lies a word most souls never see. 
those who dare travel to that depth
Discover passion abreast true despair. 

Above the surface our bearings hold fast,
the way home can always be seen. 
Fore far beneath the calm we show
love rages and it's jaws won't release. 

Loves first real gaze hinders all time and space
all things lost appear to be found
One moment, love seems like the glue
till the chaos changes all we perceive.

Details | Iambic Pentameter | |


Arranged in paradise, by suffering's fate,
to have no end, to be alone and wait,
it was her love, acceptance came so fast
she had no time to think it might not last,
as he, the sailor left, she loved too late;

He'd waited on the dock so long he grew
to be inspired by something she won't do,
'twas just a recognizing love is there
the reaching out for what is everywhere,
but love for her was something all so new;

the chart well planned, and ties that bound the ship
were heaved away, and thus began the trip,
upon the sea, past U-Boats ev'ry one,
yet feared he not, his ship was let to run.
their course away from where the moon would dip.

She on the shore, he on the watch at three,
both dreaming dreams not ever let to be
but absence makes the heart more fonder yet,
and out of sight means not they will forget;
the ship sailed on, and peaceful was the sea;

the gale that came and sank him to the reef,
took from the shore the lady in her grief,
and they were thus to marry, in the sea,
united 'neath the waves, eternally,
depriving love from time, the devil's thief.

Details | Free verse | |

My heart will go on and on

My bags are all packed and ready to go, Goodbye my love, you know I hate to leave For it’s the only way to escape from the pain that you had gave. I’m stepping on a board of a ship trying to hold back the tears, I used to think that I have an answer to everything, To my worried mind that is full of fears. Sailing into the ocean of North Atlantic As I embrace the wind that twirling above the sky Standing beneath the silence, Watching the passengers chatting, laughing Enjoying the night, sipping their wine Others are not, just sitting beside the ship Maybe they are just like me Carrying a heavy heart that are drowning In sadness and graving for a love that had gone Some are smiling saying hi Clanging on the arms of their love ones. Still, I’m standing beside this ship Holding the locket that you had gave, As I heard the screams that echo in my ear Children’s crying craving for help, lovers clanging in their arms The titanic where I pass is about to sink Collide with an iceberg, this voyage Would be the end of my life? I run as fast trying to escape, But it’s too late; I thrown into the deep ocean My body shaking, I begun to sleep Tried to open my eyes, I see your face Holding the locket closes to my heart The memory of you I will bring Unto the last minute of my breath. That my heart will go on and on, Like a water from the sea that flow. Written By: Cheryl Aldea My heart will go on and on Contest Tracie ~*~ Indigo Dreamweaver

Details | Lyric | |

away with the sun

Its getting late
but you already came 
and while you were here
things never change 
you lay with me
and tell me your words
then you leave 
and I feel hurt.
Its not you that hurts me 
but the sound of the door
closing behind you 
I know for sure 
you'd like to stay 
but you never do
I'm left alone 
missing you. 
These days its more frequent 
you leave so much
that you're gone more hours 
than the day brings sun
and I have begun 
to feel so numb
when the door closes 
another night I run
far away from the thoughts I have 
because its killing me to look
at my empty hands
I remember when we were on the sand 
you told me you loved me
but you weren't my man 
and so I walked, feeling okay
but too many months 
now I want you to stay
Am I selfish?
asking too much?
You only visit me an hour
after dusk
and I must go on
but should I stay?
when you see me sometimes
but its always too late.

Details | Personification | |


Ask fate does the moon shift 

As the oceans drift apart 

With no moon in this sea of dark 

Visions slowly sank 

My dead eyes staring blank 

While i stay idle 

Forming an illusion of an isle 

Struggling to find consciousness growing weary 

Long thoughts in my head I hold dearly 

Chained as I am to body, soul and mind 

Barely scraching the surface with nothing to find 

There is not a line pourtraying a goal 

As I live peacefully with my soul 

My last drop of satisfied life that once ran rampant 

Drips to the sea of lost souls to be tampered  

Twisted and sore my vessel that I lore 

My soul began to soar higher then ever before

Details | Sonnet | |

Night ship

I woke to hear the sound of flapping sails,
With rigging gently slapping on the mast.
How strange a sound I thought within the vales,
Where from my window pane, a ship sailed past.
So dreary was its visage as it sailed,
On weary waves across the eerie sky.
The sailors hid their tears and softly wailed,
When captain death swept past them with his scythe.
The reaper turning slowly looked my way,
With eyes that blackened out the very light.
He beckoned me to board without delay,
While claiming that my soul was his by right.
And as I prayed to God my soul to save,
I felt the creaking hull and rolling waves.

Details | Ballad | |

Siren's Song

She’s alone under beach lights, she’s screaming at air
wishing someone would notice, could anyone hear,
feel the anguish, the loss, losing battle of one?
She’s at war with the world and she’s comming undone.
‘It’s all wrong,’ left her lips, ‘it’s alright,’ said the tides,
‘sometimes we all need a safe place to hide,
to wait inside shadows, return with new light
cause we change and we change till the patterns are right.’
‘But this pounding resounding inside of my head,
I fear is the only thing tangible left.
I can hear it and feel it consuming my head,
eats me up from the inside, lays nothing to rest.’
But the water just turned and it crashed upon rocks,
became angry, determined, climbed onto the dock,
said, ‘Listen to me, I am old and I am wise,
what reason have I to fill you with lies?
I’m a part of your body, a piece of your world,
have I not kept you living since you were a girl?’
But her feet kept on forward at a steady pace
“I’m sick and I'm tired, I'm leaving this place.
I can wait no longer for the turning of time.
I'm the only one left and I’ve been left behind.”
‘But they’re here! Someone’s coming! It won’t be long yet.”
but her mind was as certain as certain could get
and the rushing of water had drown out the sound
as the pounding inside became heavy and loud
and the water, though angry, then grew very still
whispered ‘There is nothing if nothing is fueling a will.
I cannot instill a desire to live, eventual peace is all I could give.’
So she sank and she sang all the air from her lungs,
she breathed in the waves awaited silence to come.
“As I have in you, you may now flow through me,”
and the tides changed again as they dragged her to sea.

Details | I do not know? | |

Gulf Oil Spill !

Man to blame,
Once again to his shame,
His record continues to destroy !
The beauty he did not create, nor can he save…
He will never learn how to properly behave…

Nature screams pointlessly once again ?
Fearing where next we’ll drill ?
Gulf oil spill.

Details | Free verse | |

The Spark

It was overwhelming, it was lovely
It was my definition of forever, it was empowering
I spread it into the sea
Into space, time, and everything in between or beyond
I spread it into their souls
I spread it throughout the forgotten dimensions

Betrayal, a curve ball
Unexpectedly knocking me from this universe
I floated, away from everything i had seen
I was spread, beyond the city
I was spread, further from the seas

Closer to the bottom
The light became dim
The light became an illusion
The truth had been unfolded beneath
Like a trench, eager to sub duct innocence of loyalty
For I had traveled so far...

The spark, what is now a burden
What now burns
For once, it lit the way
It guided the way that the mind created
The illusion we were eager to find

Now all that is left
And of course,
Only the foolish search for the spark

Details | Couplet | |

Fallen Angel

“Angels descending, bring from above, 
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love”
Glory abounded, light that was rare
Musical cherub now chained cold and bare,
Created for greatness, glimmered and gleaned,
Turned from the brightness, an Immortal machine,
Arrogance and vanity destroyed by rebellion,
Now a Fallen Angel, a force nolonger compelling,
Redemption polluted,
By views that were diluted,
The original sin,
To think you could win,
It wasn’t enough to be right under success,
You desired to be the ultimate best,
Everlasting wounds with eternal demise,
The most beautiful Angel now covered in lies,
Magnificence lost,
By the saviors cross,
The lake of sweltering fire,
Your new kingdom that has now transpired.

By: Sabina Nicole

Contest: Fallen Angel

Details | Free verse | |

Spring Healing

A wound trying to heal.
I pick at grief,
like a child digs at a scab.

I'm leaving a dark dance
that winds into a night
that never ends.
A dance where pain circles,
and weaves it's seeds 
into a hilly landscape,
that lives behind my eyes.

Memories of tangled beauty
like silken grass
knot in the breath of the wind.
I pull and I push.
Like Chinese handcuffs,
I won't let go.

Dusk lights a path
that beckons me to follow
to a darkness so deep
I know it would blind me.
Lost, I listen for dawn.

A bath of morning light
so lovely, so caring
washes over me.
Shines while I trace
the path of where I've danced.
A trail of fading steps,
pale bruises imprinted lightly 
on the tender earth.

In the wind I now hear music.
It's a beautiful song I hum
while I watch a scar grow fainter.

Details | Free verse | |

Mind And Then The Body (Christmas 2009)

Christmas Day 2009,
I enter the code and into the door,
Into the lift to the second floor,
Past the T.V room and an eerie feeling tilted and odd,
The folks in Christmas hats are all on the nod,
And my grandma mumbles that the rooms too cold,
She doesn't remember who I am...

Details | Rhyme | |

The Specific Ocean

The point is dull upon the spear,
But still it pierced my greatest fear-
That this pain will always worsen
(My sinking ship so wayward steered)
Through the Ocean of my person
Toward a vortex, alas! Am veered!
I'll sail to Hell- cursed excursion!
But, lo! An island doth appear-
The sea doth swell; to Her a burden
That She vows for our submersion,
Crashing upon the rocks rushed near
Shipwrecked! Incurred Her incursion!
When She, so once to me endeared-
How I wish a diff'rent version
Of our tale that endeth here...


Details | Prose | |

Yesterday's Summer


A lovely day that brought for series of endearing moments -

From the boat ride on the sea shore to the horizon of wide blue-green ocean
His eyes wander- like a fisherman’s hope-
Waiting, counting, and watching in close detail every scene to observe
The waves touched the wooden paddle with astray -strong hump.
His hand grips mine, a careful touch of comfort 
I guess he was scared from the uncertain buoyancy of water waves to balance.
Then he gazed up as if trying to catch the approaching sunlight beam 
and inhale in deep gratitude for the next tides were about to catch.
My Heart stops—and beats aloud.
I was astonished for a moment, captive by the boy, 
How he become someone new- Someone who attracts vulnerability of natures beauty and deceitful threads on fear of the unknown.
Should I smile dearly to hide my amusement? 
Or let the clear blue waves mirror the admiration of my heart?
I let be.
Reaching an island of hopes and wishes,
We walked to discover what lies beneath.
I found the lovely pebbles by the sand then collectively picked each purely form corals
He told me- These could mean more than the Jewelry I have to treasure.
He- then, found a solid rock formation from the mountain floors- 
I told him, this shelter can make you feel haunted and home 
And we laugh with ambivalent for our mischief.
By noon we swim with the fishes 
And patiently waits for the sunset to kiss his lovely sea, 
just like how it kissed our skinned to tanned.
He leaned and gave me embraces as the sky slowly turned 
to a beautifully lighted darkness- 
I felt warmed, and secured by his unexplained gestures.
He lie next to me, as He count my wishes as a cursed
To the stars that have to sacrifice and die. 
I told him- not to worry about the dying stars instead  live gazing up to thank them every night, and he smiled forcefully.
And we slept together through the calm sea sand bed..
He was all with me in an island of yesterday’s summer  
He was completely there, before I close my eyes,
Before the wind blows cold, before the sunsets turned grey-
And my ashes returned to seas. 


Details | Rhyme | |

Witch of November's Wrath

Great Lakes mariners fear the “Witch of November”
Winds blow fiercely in the cruelest month of the year
The crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald would concur
If in November ’75, their ship hadn’t disappeared

Capt. McSorley made his last radio call
Saying the fully loaded ship was “holding its own”
He had no clue as to what future events would befall
The true danger of their voyage was unknown

Very soon families heard that the ship had gone down
Claiming the lives of all twenty-nine crew members
The Mariners’ Church of Detroit’s bell gave the countdown
One ring for each mate who was now Lake Superior’s

Treacherous seas take the lives of many, good or bad
And the crew reckoned their final fate with their God
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” left many sad
Drowning was no better than a firing squad

Above the ship the wicked witch cackled evilly
Her victims now lying in watery graves
Old tars now know better than to ignore fallibility
It’s easy to be taken down by the wind and waves 


*For Francine’s “Write Me a Lightfoot Poem” contest
Song: “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

Details | I do not know? | |


My destination's inner space.
Erasing things not meant to chase.
I'm holding dreams of you, but then,
when I must die, I'll live again.

You were the bait. Your daddy laughed.
Six hundred smiles and I was trapped.
Your photographs got tired of me,
but I still love each one I see.

There was a day I couldn't swim.
I drowned a while, my hope was slim.
At football games as I recall
I drowned one day in early Fall.

My tears are hidden in the sea,
mistakes I made were constantly.
Not being more than how I seem,
The day I died it killed a dream.

I've loved you on the beach down here,
It's Hollywood, in Floridear.
From Canada come all the lame
To live part of my sunshine game.

As seagulls dipped, I saw a girl
her name I cannot breath nor slur,
an rv killed her in her head,
she looks out windows like she's dead.

Now I must cry for her again,
And then I'll cry for you, my friend.
if life has anything to lose,
I'll lose it twice, so what's the use?
© ron Wilson aka Vee Bdosa the Doylestown Poet

Details | I do not know? | |

So long, Osama

This here is a poem
I wrote it just because
I had a funny punchline
I don't remember what it was

It was something about Osama
That is all that I remember
Come to think, it wasn't funny
It was about the eleventh of September

Oh yes, it went something like...

Details | Rhyme | |

Poetry About Poetry

Shades of color bounce within
Singing their hues dancing in place
Vivid lines colored outside
Rules broken with empty space
A midnights dream heard and seen
Gleaming from the twinkle of a eye
Wings touched flown and plucked
Gliding like a bird up in the sky
Wishes from pennies thrown into tears
The reservoir over flowing with pigments of pain
Drowning from the shadows 
The flood paints the day
Words speak volumes of silence hidden
Their sounds blind to what they see
Mirrors of nouns and verbs 
Their meaning and secrets lost at sea
Emotions ruled by laws of language
Spelled in boxes of glass
Melted from sands inside
That voices strangle to grasp

Details | Narrative | |


We used to rent a very old house
for our summer vacations, it was built
in the early fifteen hundred by criminals
who roamed the Atlantic Ocean for gold and diamonds:
roof, windows and doors reminded us
of a dark house that pirates frequented
in the could imagine 
how many treasure chests were there with one 
of them watching over them most of the day;
and had he gotten drunk, they'd have dumped him
into the Ocean! Those pirates were merciless:
life meant nothing to them as they pillaged and killed.
There was no air conditioner,
and we left the windows open,
so we could sleep comfortingly, but here and there
weird sounds were heard turning into a human voice,
" Child, wake up and come with me...
I'll tell you a pirate's story you haven't read yet,
the one that actually happened when I was your age."
His red face had marks that only swords could have carved;
his pointy nose as dirty as a kid playing with mud,
his teeth rotten and yellow with a horrible stench.
as he pulled me off my bed and dragged me outside.
And as he said those words, I looked back and worried
about my family inside that unlit, haunted house...
the story he couldn't tell anyone, thinking he was mad.

Written by Andrew Crisci
for Gail Doyle's contest,
" Stranded Or A Ghost Story Of Your Choice
Any Horror Movie "

Details | Rhyme | |

EYE Don't See -Part 1-

My eyes
Pour forth feelings
That I’ve felt in the past
They make my heart ache…
Take it all away…
Oh my God…
They’re making me sink in dismay

When will they break away?
When will they give me a break?

And I’m left in my solitude…
Do you hear me weeping?
And I’m close to my demise…
Only to find myself disappear…
When will peace draw near?

Eye don’t see
A happy ending in this scene 

My eyes
Journeys into the unknown
Who knows what will happen…
They’re like hidden treasure…
They’re buried far below…

And I’m left in my solitude…
My eye’s weeping…
And I’m close to my demise…
Only to find myself disappear…
When will peace draw near? 

Oh my God…
They’re driving me insane
When will they see my reflection?
When will they heal the infection?

Eye don’t feel
Raindrops of hope and relief 
All I feel…is grief…
Eye sense no peace…

And I’m left in my solitude…
My eye’s sagging…from endless mourning  
And I’m close to my demise… 
Only to find myself disappear…
When will peace draw near?

Does He hear
My supplications?
Does He sense 
My fear?

My eyes
Conceals the tears that dare to spew out
I feel trapped and lost without a doubt…
They erase my delight…
They seek my hurt…
Oh my God…
They’re casting me away into the perilous sea

And I’m left in my solitude…
My eye’s weeping…
And I’m close to my demise…
Only to find myself disappear…
When will peace throw out my fear?

Eye don’t see
A ship in sight…to save me from my demise
My lifeless body...
Drifts away in the wild ocean...
Without a sound...
Without emotion...

Eye don’t see
A rope to hold on to…
My hope for peace
Has drowned…

Details | Lyric | |

Amazing Grace Wash Over Me

Grace Wash Over Thee.

Amazing grace wash over me.
My tears are a river to the sea.
Lord above, we know you know,
the oil that is washing upon our coast.
Amazing grace wash over me,
and lift my soul up to Thee.
Lord above, hear my prayer,
for those who are in dispair.
Amazing grace wash over me.
I lift my hands to God you see.
My prayer for those who were hurt,
and those who will never return to earth.
Amazing grace wash over thee,
families were left in disbelief.
Empty hands, their loved ones gone,
Lord Jesus, guide them safely Home.
Amazing grace wash over me, 
the oil is filling up the sea, 
from Louisiana to Mississippi.
Animals are dying,
and people are crying.
Amazing grace wash over me.

Details | Free verse | |


Autumn creeps in slowly
Tenderly, seductively
Summer giggles and blushes
Tickled by crisp exhilarating breezes
The colors of fall mesmerize her
She needs to feel the fiery reds and golden hues.
She longs to don their passionate splendor
Autumn’s tender kisses entice her
Swept away with reckless abandon
The excitement overtakes her
Enraptured in effervescent glory
Autumn sinks in
His force penetrating
Deep into the heart of Summer
His grip is unshakable
Summer struggles to hold on
The waning sun warms weakly
Flowers bloom in last ditch effort
She feels herself slipping away
The vibrant luring colors fade
Withering into brown lifeless forms
The once lush green leaves of Summer
Flutter helplessly down to the cold hard ground
Autumn, triumphant, drags his defeated prey
Onto the alter of Winter.
Giving himself over as well
The henchman lies down his life
Winter’s deep frozen death reigns.
A great, barren arctic tomb (womb?)
Under which Summer waits to be reborn
With Spring’s first gentle kiss.

Details | Ballad | |

Last Words of the Mariner

Lying here in this life’s final berth,
No longer escaping to the sea.
If the greatest lie of all is not birth,
Death is life’s great treachery.

I think back to the times I spent
Sifting through the briny deep,
Deeply inhaling the saliferous scent,
Pleasure enough to make one weep.

The grave awaits me, I now admit,
As mortality is seeping through.
For if eternity is not a infinite pit,
I hope it ends in the quenching blue.

Details | Lyric | |

In Your Love

Every time you kiss my lips 
I am drowning, I'm drowning
Like a never ending abyss
I am drowning, I'm drowning
Every time you whisper I miss you
I am drowning, I'm drowning
In your love,  in your love.

Life doesn't seem dangerous
When I'm drowning, yeah I'm drowning
Don't take it so serious
Cause I'm drowning, yeah I'm drowning
I don't care what they think of us
Cause I'm drowning, yeah I'm drowning
In your love, in your love

~ Leonard Napierskie

Details | Free verse | |

The Tidal Wave

The Tidal Wave

I saw a tidal wave come in,
Raging winds and fierce water
Took the houses, cars, trees,
Street signs, park benches,
Pictures of loved ones
(Poor baby Louie, 3 years old washed away)
And along with all the power
It tore my heart out of my cage
And swept it out to the 
Endless seas,
And the great white sharks
Have their way with my heart.

Now bleeding and dying,
Pain follows me,
And I close my eyes,
And wish it all to be done.
Pray for me, I want pain no more.
See tears fall from the corners of my eyes,
As I breathe in and feel no heartbeat.
And they all look at me,
Faces of nomads and they snicker
At me,
I hang my head and cry tears,
But the tears were washed
Away in the tidal wave,
So I sit there,
Eyes closed
And I sleep the night away.


Details | Rhyme | |

Soul Mate Ships on the Seas.

Come sail from time where death we be
Come sail from death into birth with me 
Come sail your birth to a lifetime with me
Come sail your lifetime to thoughts of me
Come sail your thoughts to the mind of me
Come sail your mind to the body of me
Come sail your body to the flesh of me
Come sail your flesh, find n’ touch me
Come sail your touch to rhyme with me
Come sail your rhyme come lay with me
Come sail your lust on the seas of me
Come sail your seas into the heart of me 
Come sail your heart for the love of me
Come sail your love with the soul of me
Come sail your soul I have longed for thee
Come sail with me for eternity, our destiny
Come sail our destiny, karmic ships we be
Come sail the Milky Way…come with me

Details | Free verse | |

Fly Home, Little Angel

“Come fluttering words, come drifting to me...” A Rambling Poet

A gentle breeze brings me the soft smell
So familiar it calms my tear-filled eyes instantaneously.
I venture closer to the source.
Two ebony, round vases resting atop a sill.
The scent of the roses and carnations flit about me,
As they did about her so little ago.
Yet we have laid her softly
After she was slain
Into the moist, soft soil from which her scent derived.
Always like a butterfly did flora float about her.
So small, and pale, with mahogany hair
When we found her lay flared about her delicate head
Like the halo our Father gifted her.
For it came about in such a gentle flow
And jade eyes, calm as the sea
In which we found her
They sparkled like the sun dancing off the waves.
Her eyes were open, and matched the swirling surf.
The tears flow silver from my own emerald orbs
I peer into mucky puddles lying about 
And see her face in my own.
I bore her from my womb
Yet our Lord has called her home
To save her from the world's cruelty
An Angel to watch this land
I stopped to smell the flowers
Not rushing bust taking life in time
The wind blew by my ear
And I heard the whisper of a little Angel
“I love you, Mommy”

Erika Raiken
Contest: What is she thinking... - Constance La France ~A Rambling Poet~

Details | Rhyme | |

Ocean's Chamber

My kingdom is underground,
Protected by the sea.
My castle can't be found,
But that's no guarantee.

Howls of misery and shrieks of despair,
Are carried by the deep.
A chorus of pleading prayer,
Is tricked into eternal sleep.

You fools will never learn,
My fortress is a secret,
A welcome you can't earn.
A crime you should regret.

Glancing out my window,
Your bodies often float.
You drowned in my ocean's glow,
A place that's so remote.

I keep my kingdom veiled,
Guarded from harm and anger.
In this realm, I am nailed,
Trapped in my ocean's chamber.

Details | Dramatic monologue | |

Release Me Over the Cliff

Release Me Over the Cliff


Details | Haiku | |

...our lobster killers

...our lobster killers
BP's oil spill destroying
ocean, tap water

Details | I do not know? | |

The Grand Old Lady

One hundred year’s young.
grand old lady
lying still
in the blackness
of time.

Her great hull
standing silent
weeping for
its precious

Shivering vaporous forms
of first class and steerage.
Stroll hand in hand
together to the
surging currents
of the Atlantic.

A vast wardrobe
of scattered luggage,
across the sandy floor.
Small ghostly forms
play chasey among
the tattered decks.

Details | I do not know? | |

The Vermeil Horizon

My life's lain out in vibrant shades
Amongst the shards of broken dawn
I walk alone through what remains
Of how my soul has come and gone

I have know the night, the stars
And I have seen the endless flowers
Falling like a sea of mercury

To see is to feel; to touch is to know
These tears will never let me go

For I have known the ocean's tide
And I have felt those endless nights
Fading like the sea that was in me

My heart is lain within the sky
The sunset that has yet to die

Details | Rhyme | |

Dunnages creaked

For one odd week we sailed towards Azores,
a strange route was on new, parallel lines,
I heard your hoarse voice saying from the brines,
"be careful of the Southern stars".

Three winds' gust-demons danced on iron wood,
foolishly we joined them drinking the grog,
I heard your voice from the insides of fog,
"north stormy winds thump on the hood".

We danced and danced with death tracking on sight,
his ghostly vessel floated in distance,
we laughed at his macabre contrivance,
- with illuminated deck's lights.

Dunnages creaked, and then I swear, I heard
your eerie voice to express a verdict,
"the vessel's crew should depart derelict,
- embark in boats and be deferred."

I heard the reef rock shattering the bilge,
the vessel heeled to starboard, cut across,
destined to lie on sand and seaweed moss.
with our souls close to her effulge.

We passed that night above our homes' roadsted,
dancing and drinking through our way to hell,
you heard our fog horn weeping and bow bell,
signal from mists that we were dead?

© G.V. 02-06-2013

Details | Enclosed Rhyme | |

The Stars Die

Fifty-thousand stars died last night.
Painting a beautiful picture,
(with an absurd haunting allure)
on an abandoned sandy site.

Swept up in a sharp, vicious storm,
celestial corpses to be found,
their lives absorbed into the ground.
Genocide given an art form. 

Details | Rhyme | |

Acid Dawn

...swimming in an acid dawn.

lest we be;
...swimming in an acid dawn.


lurching a dehydrated, evaporated existence. Famine on our minds.

lest we be;
...swimming in an acid dawn.






Details | Rhyme | |

Gushing Destruction

As the oil gushes freely from the hole
The ocean currents disperse it abroad
Fish, birds all sea creatures await tole
This time the tole awaits for thee and all

No just sealife, waterfoul, oysters, clams
This could mean less food on our grocer's shelf
Of course, there will be biscuits, even jam
But what about fish, oysters fried by a chef

As that oily sustance keeps spreading
All around the Gulf who's to say where will stop
It could bounce all around the globe
Might take a year or two but who even knows

That oil might slip into that slow boat to China
On the submarine in the deepest ocean
Maybe get on your bassboat moored under oak tree
As the cooing Dove calls to me how long 'twill be

When the end will come no one knows
This could be the start of those woes
Spoken of in Revelations when one-third
Of the sea creatures meet their destruction

Details | I do not know? | |

A Bloody Sea

Across the cool, blue ocean,
a love will wait, but maybe not.

Two halves that make a whole,
impossibly perfect, or so they thought.

For she found another half
that fits like they were made to be together.

But the deserted half still whispers,
"I'm yours", as the tears fall.
Broken. Cracked. Fragile.
Never to be whole again.

And as she thinks about who she left,
She regrets it, because the sea
calls to her, lamenting her choice
and speaking of his broken heart.

She goes to the water and stands waist deep.
The sea shows her his agony, and it makes her heart bleed,
soon she will breathe her last.
Blood dripping into the sea to fix his shattered being.
Drop by drop he will be renewed,
but she must cease to exist.
Blood falling into the sea until the last drop has left her body.
Her reward for breaking him, is breaking herself.

Details | Rhyme | |


The beautiful ship of Captain Smith
sank into the frigid water of the Atlantic Ocean
on a moonless night as Fedrick Fleet taken by emotion
spotted that massive iceberg approaching the main deck.

Fleet's first reaction was to notify his captain who had decided to doze,
he ran to his cabin as the thousands lights began to flicker, but the hard knock
woke up Captain Smith and told him what he had seen which was very bad news...
" Captain Smith, your ship has been hit by an iceberg: it's sinking faster than a rock!"

" It cannot be! It cannot be!The Titanic was built to be unsinkable! "
he hollered by putting on his black cap rushing out with horror-filled eyes,
" Take down all of the lifeboats, lower them into the the impossible "
" There isn't enough time...we must act quickly, or everyone dies!"

Captain Smith took another look and knew that rescue wouldn't have come for at all,
taking in consideration the location and dreary darkness sorrounding the sinking ship,
" Children and women first! " He ordered the young officers that seemed skeptical... 
whlile the bunched, helpless men watched in fright refraining from jumping off as yet.

As the Titanic rose into he night sky, and lifeboats rowed...what an doleful goodbye
for those watching the dreadful evacuation, surely their sadness they didn't hide...
but who was the last member of the crew? Captain Smith of course, who never left,
but died in the icy waters...Southampton still remembers him for his bravery and grit.

The beautiful ship of Captain Smith met an anpredictable destiny...
disappearing into the gleaming, dark ocean when no star shone;
the screams of the terrified voices are still heard as clear as then...
when one racalls the heart-wrenching tragedy that happened at sea.

Details | I do not know? | |

Emotional Tide

The sky is clouded over with the imminent rain
The world is dissolving as the water is pain
My soul is rebuilt, but it washes away
The emotional tide blotting out the new day

How many times must I lose my soul?
How many times must I lose control?
How many times will death take its toll?
How many times must I not be whole?

Tidal wave of loneliness crashes on my shore
Sandcastles imagined once are gone forever more
Looking for the answer where the books have all been burnt
Relapse into nothingness, the one thing left that hurts

How many times must I lose my soul?
How many times must I lose control?
How many times will death take its toll?
How many times? Will I never be whole?

Silver light shines down upon the blank and moonlit beach
Ashes of my soul are almost left within my reach
Pressure of emotion crushing down upon my life
Diamonds come from burning ruin. Diamonds come from strife.

How many times have I lost my soul?
How many times did I lose control?
How many times did death take its toll?
How many times?
How many times?
How many times have I almost been whole?

Details | Free verse | |

Ol' Sea Snake's Carriage Ride

Ol' Sea Snake's Carriage Ride

Cobblestones wobble and rock the carriage, 
as I circle these streets with Blue Bits and 
Derby Boy on this vibrant morning.
With the sun on my back and  a salty gale brushing 
People come from all over to tour this city, 
and soak up it's history and scenic views.
Why not climb aboard my carriage and take 
a brisk ride with me on this beautiful day?
As we trot through the historic district, I'll 
tell you some of our most scandalous folklores
and show you their shocking locations, 
like Copper Moon Ridge, where pirates once 
dressed as dames to steal their first good swig 
of America's finest moonshine.
It's still pretty darn good!
You'll see the towering cliff views of our granite 
lighthouse, whose menacing design has weathered 
decades of the ocean's pounding tides. 
We'll squeeze in time to feed the beached seals basking 
in the sun or catch a rare glimpse of  the orca whales 
playing in our bay.
to our brightest vistas that magnify the star's diamond twinkles.
 ...Perfect for capturing your lover's passion-heart.
 ...Gentleman's honor, I won't take a peek!
If it's fish and chips you seek, we'll head over to 
Smacky-Bud's Mackerel Shack for the tastiest fish around.
or it'll be a long ride back.
while there's still time.
I'm not getting any younger!
You day-trippers spend too much of your weekly grind 
in your lackluster cars.
Come, sit back and unwind for a short time.
I'll sweep you back to the golden age of enchantment, 
when hearts would mysteriously merge on a slow-trotting 
carriage ride.  Memories like these could last you a lifetime!

Details | Free verse | |

Barnacles on Bones

  Sirens call
       And tempests toss
        The Dutchman asks his due.

 Scythed by moonlight
        the dark crystal sea beckons
 To the romantic, the foolhardy
          The adventurous and unwise.
   The sea is a wicked lover
 Every seven years
           You’ll threaten her yoke
                   Tempted by the land

   But Lorelei will not be idle.
   Your song she will yet sing

sinewy seaweed snakes
round your limbs
pulling you

As bubbles like drowned pearls
Leave your lips like a kiss

Details | Ode | |

To a Mermaid

At the end of the day
All your tears fade away;
All the stars come to rest,
The horizon now crest.

At the sea, the tide fades
As the sum of these days
Takes its toll on the ground,
Ripped and torn, tattered down.

And I'm here, by your side,
Torn away by the tide,
Trying still not to drown,
Not to fade in the sound of the sea.

But I see you, your eyes
Are the tide of the sea.
As they ebb, so they rise.
Still, they wash into me.

I can cry now no more.
Struck yet speechless, I cease.
In your eye, the tides roar;
I have found my release.

Lost in beauty, in that sea,
Lost in time, I'm lost to me.
Your face has aspect, fearful symmetry.
I find I'm lost for words. I cease to breathe.

And as the tide now tears me down,
It matters not.
My soul has found its rest within these ceaseless tides
That once contained my empty cries.

Captivated by your lips,
My breath is water.
'Neath the whips and scorns of time,
I find my peace.
My soul, content, has found release.

Lost in my emotion,
I found what I could be.
Drowned within that ocean,
My soul's absolved to me.

So have I drowned inside the sea,
Inside your tears, inside of me.
I know now what it is to be

Details | Rhyme | |


Sadness is evoked in the splendid sunset before the coming dusk,
I admire it immensely and yet it deepens as dark;
 what's life? A rebirth of the seasons that alters time?
I certainly agree, but somehow I'm stupefied by the sublime!

Not all thoughts, sentiments, dreams and memories fade as sunsets:
they are our own images carved in time itself...
think of the exceptional individuals who became heroes and saints;
did they ever look back, or feared death? 

The sunken sun is not visible anymore, above the wondrous Firmament flickers
as seagulls rest on rocks splashed by the turbulent waves,
and lost in it's immensity, I fear the shadows of the dusk...
when, unexpectedly, life is taken from me and I will return to worthless dust.

Details | I do not know? | |

Fate of Death

The ruffling of feathers,
And the snap of a beak,
The quick tempered woman,
Jumped back to her feet.
She soars over water,
Looking sharp for her prey,
With one on little movement,
She sees where it lays.
Down like a bomb,
She dives under waves,
She catches a fish,
Sends him to his grave.
She gobbles him up,
Like a wolf on a rabbit,
But his friends from the sea,
Just wouldn’t have it.
They jumped up to the sun,
And drug her to her fate,
Drown her in the water,
Where she caught her bait.
Now there is no reason to be afraid,
Of that quick tempered woman,
She is swimming with the fishes,
She got what was her fate.

Details | Elegy | |

Elegy for Heidi

Elegy for Heidi 
The clock ticks away.
But there is no layer of time 
and no decision to make. 
I have been jaywalking 
on the edge of the roof
for the last few weekends;

down below the grass looks
already dark, depressed,
as if death has made it.

then a bird, a simple 
blackbird sits on the bough.
It cries out and a hand

rises from the green earth
like a bride waking from
her bridal night, gleaming.

I know, I know, I know, 
we are all life’s disciples.
“Come on, wake up!”
“My God, you are from East.
It is
Still night here.” She said.
=© 2009 - All Rights Reserved Kushal Poddar 

Details | Free verse | |

Look To The Sea

With waves crashing to my feet repeat in timeless cavity;

Stranded through its idle pull in our ellaborate flames...
Look to the sea...

Onto a far off distance after she would marry me
Let all evil now flee,
The turning of the dial in its exquisite source
Look to the sea,

A waves tumbling then what to believe
A grand fulfillment in what to achieve;
In long lines we will find,
A tollerance for truth yet one drop of a dime

Look to the sea a reason to believe,
What have we achieved?

Our fallen economy collapsed at its seams!
Through the notion of laughter a tear drop fell
Amidst the excursion an inner swell

A line drawn in the sand,
When will we ever understand?

Details | Rhyme | |

I Will Soon Be Dead

When all my Greed comes back to get me,
In a wave of fire and fury
Rushing me down to drown in the sea-
Beneath the sand am hither buried
For all My Sloth, my Pride, my Envy,
All my Lust and Glutt'ny, too,
In the End will come and kill me,
With Anger, also, in close pursuit

Details | Rhyme | |

My Pupils

Fatigued eyes droop, lacking sweet slumber
But my eyes are an exception…everything’s a blur
They stare off into space…they ache with displeasure 
But I still wonder… my pupils still wander

My pupils still wander… never planted in one spot 
Their cup is half full…rather than half empty
My pupils see what others cannot  
Because… their too busy to smell the roses of plenty 

My pupils project feelings…
They comprehend – they spiral up and down
They express horrendous sorrows…they observe their surroundings 
My belongings are misplaced – my smile lowers into a frown

Optimism isn’t in the picture…bestowing infection
Upon my crestfallen heart 
I’m a broken compass – I’m losing my direction  
My animated heart tears apart 

My pupils glance in many directions – beaming with glee 
On with our soothing music 

Intrigued eyes lift…willing to wonder in curiosity 
But my eyes swelter, wearily drowning in discouragement  
They spot what others are too oblivious to see… 
Nonetheless, I still ponder…
Are my pupils singing merrily OR are they wandering in bafflement? 

Do I witness the fears and woes?

My pupils reject the precious scenery 
They are carefree – they are heedless of my despondency 
My surroundings are chaotic and wild – my heart pounds profoundly…

My pupils…
Oh dear pupils…
Will you ever pay the bills?
Will you ever use your skills?

My heart bleeds in the river mills
My pupils ascend…above the dazzling hills 
My pupils spew out remorse 
My pupils are like open doors…

Details | Rhyme | |

The Grave of the Mariner

A mariner went a'pon the sea
To find his fair lass a pearl
So he in grand fettle 
Gathered his mettle 
And let his ship's sails unfurl

No able for the deed so tough
The mariner would pey the mail
So he all alone
Would find no stone
And his venture would truly fail

Ye go on the bash
O mariner, so doomed
And enjoy one day a'last
It's a cadger's curse
And your anchor's been cast
For by the sea ye'll be entombed

The mariner set his net afloat
For the maiden of the sea he lied in wait
She'd have to come soon 
And he'd have his boon
Aye, a pearl to his lass afore it's too late

He hadn't spied nary a one
When he heard a lullaby tune
He looked down in the deep
For the nymph of the sea
To see where to thrust his harpoon

“Wull ye no byde a wee?” sang she
Luring the poor mariner along
He climbed over the aft
Leaving his raft
Enchanted by her devilish song

So it's aw by nou
O mariner so doomed
For this day shall be your last
It's a cadger's curse
And your anchor's been cast
And by the sea ye'll be entombed

It'll be yon tyme afore
He'll see his bonny lass again
For he sank down to his grave 
'Neath sea, wind and waves 
So was the tale of the seaman

Feeling sorry for her deed
The singing maiden did pay
A parting gift 
Upon his dead lips
A pearl formed of her tears was layed 

And so was the daith
Of the mariner thus doomed
A pearl for his lass
Would ne'er be seen
Since this day was his last 
When his anchor was cast
And by the sea was he entombed

Details | Free verse | |

My Fate in the Sea

I watched the sea as it grew dark, 
the light it shined but not too dark, 
fading from the clandestine spots, 
I see the sea just fall apart. 

What makes it grow or even die, 
this endless piece just takes my eyes, 
I can not escape the growing fate, 
the holding cell's about to break.

Details | Ballad | |

Shadow of Memory

She walks in darkness in the light,
Rememberance the only sight
That fades
As the dawn breaks over the crest
Of the waves.

She finds rest and she finds peace
Inside the shelter of the leaves.
She finds stars that never cease
Beneath the night and endless seas.

Looks deep into the universe
And wonders at the light,
The thousand depthless, empty words
Unspoken in the night.

The moon is in her soul.
Who cares about control?
She's seen the world inside her eyes,
But she could never realize

That deep among the stars,
So deep inside the sea,
That deep inside the years' reflection,
Nothing still will be.

And time is lost and gone
As sunlight brings the dawn.
She's felt the sea beneath her eyes
Surrender tears.
She cries.

Details | Sonnet | |

morning has broken

Morning Has Broken 

The sea is flat and motionless shiny grey as a cannon
at a military museum Saturday afternoon, sun, storm 
rain or storm will never bring life back to its surface. 
The shoreline too is grey and there are tanks around 
from a big battle that raged when a plane was shot 
out of the sky; a world war began destroying dreams
of thousand years of peace. The strand of life is filled 
with heaps of ashen bones and untold horrors. 

On Morpheus´s wings I land softly outside a small
lemon hued house, enter and make a cup of coffee.
As I sip golden brew the colours are slowly returning,
 the sky is summer blue with a few streaks of white,
remnants of night´s grief. Sun is yellow, so is straw, 
but the olive tree is as green as the ocean used to be.     

Details | Rhyme | |

On the Harbour She Stands

In her silk evening dress
On the harbour she stands
Looking out to the waters
That claimed her man

The sea was his life
Ever since he was a boy
To be a sailor
Was to be his pride and joy

He made the grade
Through naval school
He was brought up to understand
That the sea can be cruel

Then one night
In the Pentland Firth
The sea was about to show
Its almighty worth

A force nine storm
From the North Sea heads
As his ship was cast
Onto Dunnett Head

No prisoners were taken
This November night
Smashed to smithereens
As she disappeared from sight

The very next morning
The sea was calm and quiet
A difference of hours
From the previous nights riot

Along the rocky shoreline
Bodies were washed up
Bruised and battered
In deathly abrupt

In twisted grace
Her man was found
Amongst the ship he adored
In wreckage surround

On the anniversary of her loss
On the harbour she stands
Looking out to the waters
That claimed her man

Details | Verse | |

Middle Distance

You are now
as you were then
A figure in the middle distance
suddenly gone
And with the sand and my tears hot
I fought the knot of fear
that you wouldn't come back,
carried out by the tideless sea
Then lulled by your gentle laughter
I forgot.

It'd be thirteen years til you left my sight
slipped from my horizon
Only this time
with no way to come home

Details | I do not know? | |

beauty that kills

i see an ocean wave crashing with no mercy
destroying everything in its path
i see an ocean wave killing other people
swallowing their houses and their life
all of what they worked for 
is now gone,
nobody can save what under the water now
this one wave took everything
killed all of their dreams and hopes
but still it did it so gracefully
that it made me hope
it made me think of flowers
in an open field
flowers so colorful
that even when their asleep
they take your breath away
from the beauty they unleash
a beauty so disastrous
that it kills everything in their path?!!
wow, this beauty's like a curse on earth
it serves as well
but at the same time it kills are hearts
the hearts of people filled with dreams
well, none of that matters now
because their dead and so is their dream
some may have thought of college
after a four year high school degree
they all had hopes just like you and i
well now they dont even have a home 
to look out of the window on a long dreadful night
but those who made it out alive 
they can still dream 
in fact they can make it happen
they may even escape the cold dreadful nights
but its useless because even in the desert will they live
a hurricane will start the grief again
so you keep building, keep achieving
going nowhere with your life 
just remember you can never run enough
to hide from the wrath of God

Details | Ode | |





Details | Rhyme | |

Womb of the Sea

 Damned foul weatherin' clouds,
Wrath of accursed shrouds.
Castin' a shadow upon the sea,
Waves crash, drownin', wretched me.

Clashin' swords, swashbuckler blood spilt,
Ta the bottom I sunk, ta bed of silt.
Death has safe-harbored me,
Ta the deep blue majestic sea.

Be I a seafarer story ta chantin' bard.
Me ship and crew spare nay regard,
Scurvy jackal's with yellow tail,
Harnessed the wind, set sail.

Abandoned ta brackish grave,
A mutinous act bequest brave.
Ne'er be one matey ta mourn,
This ole sea-dog capta'n be shorn.

Cradled in the womb of the sea.
Her cold embrace comforts me.
A siren's lullybye she whisper'd
The song, dyin' ta be heard

She be mine mistress true,
I hail nay kin or kith ta sail to.
In me element, a fittin' death,
Inhalin' brine, me final breath.

Details | Rhyme | |

The seashore

As I sat by the seashore,
Oh, how I wished for more,
I stepped into the water,
I saw a sea otter,
All by the seashore,
I smiled with delight,
And disappeared into the night,
I was swimming with fury,
Soon my whereabouts became blurry,
Never again was I found,
Never again on the ground,
For death became more,
All by the seashore

This is a poem I wrote way back when i was 12, I'm surprised by how good I was back then- so I decided to post it :) enjoy

Details | Free verse | |

Lost at Sea

Ripples on the surface
Movement underneath
Fishes swimming freely
Calm waters all around
The deepness hides a secret
of loss and misery
Our thoughts and wishes spared
for loved ones lost not found
now lying at the bottom
of the great blue sea

Details | Rhyme | |



One minute the seas are calm and steady,
the next I'm over board- not even ready.

I look kinda average- just a girl that you may see,
but if you glance within my eyes- terror will arise in thee.

For I am a stormy gale,
My lightening is a Fascination- to your coffin it's the nail.

With a single glimpse of my storm,
you'll be swimming in vivid nightmares- completely lorn.

I would run- if i were you,
So i don't get caught in my vast stormy brew.

So pass me by,
and go live your life! 

Details | Enclosed Rhyme | |


                                       A HAUNTED FISHER

	A hawk - sighted and decided young fisher;
          Traps skillfully, fishes for his wisher;
	Waving and sliding water - hills over;
	With howls of 'hurray', grows ever.

		Now a wisher, decrees vessels;
		And fishes millions of dreams and pearls;
		Blunts swords of sun and might of whirls;
		The spheres of storms and lightening, hurls.
			A god of holdings turns all to gold;
			Life to moving circular fold;
			Time to scarce diamonds mould;
			And occasions to sudden perches for hold.

                    	Possess a paradise with Hedden;
		Breaks brutally into the forbidden;
		Inflows and outflows hidden;		
		Landslides and gullies end Aden. 

			Fast after flying dreams, unheard, till; 
			Fast typhoon tosses, waves, spill; 
			Quacks and wrecks whiflashing castle, fill;
			Wakes of the storms died and waters calm still.

		Now where is the floating tower? 
		Flying dreams and manifold power;
		Where is the longed Hedden and Aden’s lover?
		Isn't the ocean calm blue and tempting ever???   
													JOSE PUDUSSERY

Details | Quintain (English) | |


These soft orange blossoms
are more colorful and fragrant
than the velvety, wild roses...
hastily clinging to sturdy sunflowers' stems,
fretting a danger too real and so imminent.

His manly hands attacked her in an orchard of beautiful roses, 
and she left blood stains on those delicate, scattered petals...
who did hear the young virgin's painful cry,
subdued by the quails' loud twitter in the shady elms' branches? 
Some did, but continued to walk and let her die!

Her mother wailed under the weeping, embracing elms... 
they saw her child struggle and despair, but they couldn't help;
why did that brutal man raped her and beat her to death?
And what kind of punishment he deserves for that cruel act?
Wouldn't a just judge be furious and imprison him for life?

A light wind detached the soft orange blossoms from the branches,
and let them gently fall on her violated body to cover with dignity 
the purest and youngest blood spilled in the meadow of clovers;
God Himself cried from His throne, and sent His angel of mercy
to the sorrowful and lamenting earth, which had seen the eyes of innocence.  

Copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci

Details | Blank verse | |

sunday fishing

Sunday Fishing 
In a tranquil inlet a boathouse pained red, a wooden pier 
with steps and a rowboat, tied to the pier. The sea is clear 
as spring water off a mountain fount, but at the bottom
a woman on her back, eyes wide open, around her neck 
a heavy iron chain. Her long skirt moves with the tide like 
Brown seaweed and her legs are white as a bride´s dress. 
The sea darkens a rain shower passes over, then it stops
and there is Sunday calm. A man in sou'wester appears,
carrying a plastic bucket, he jumps aboard the boat, casts
off, rows to the bay and begins fishing.
When returning it is getting dark, the bucket is full of fish  
 He secure the boat, before leaving he lights a flashlight
to see if he has forgotten anything in the boat, then walks 
home; and there is calm in the inlet  


Details | I do not know? | |

Lo sea end-o

Alas my love my dying day
Will bring sweet whispers to my grave
Recumbent in your evil snare
Snakes will tempt you, strip you bare
Careful now with tender lips
They will persuade those dormant hips
To move in places dark unknown
And when let go, will be alone

Alas my love my will dissolves 
In oceans built on dire resolve
Swept away in winds disguised
Then crushed in waves, drift and died
Venom ruins your perfect veins
Skin retracts, reminds disdain
Then mirror with its clever eye
Reclaims its sympathy, yours and mine

Details | Elegy | |

Beyond Darkness

Although you are gone,
Dearest Blue Eyes,
You are everywhere
In every breath of wind
I hear your mournful sighs
In every ocean wave
The lonely tears you cried
Your sadness
Clings heavy in sea air
Among grains of sand
lies every shattered dream

As anguish rendered your blue eyes
Heavy with slumber eternal
the sea stole you away
Swallowed you up in its depths
To lie in the hollows of desolation
And my heart
Followed you in the waves 
Beyond the darkness

Although you are gone
My dearest Blue Eyes
You are everywhere; in everything.

Details | Verse | |

To the Sailor Beloved

Twilight on the horizon
Red clouds in the sky
The myth tells the sailor
It will be his delight
The night was calm and peaceful
The day was beautiful and bright
The myth was truthful to the sailor
It was his delight
The next day was quite the opposite
The sky was red as flames
They myth tells the sailor
Take warning on this day
The storm clouds rolled in
The sea began to rage
The boat was tossed from side to side
Not a swell showed any grace
The sea was like the devil
His scorn felt in every wave
To the sailor it told him
Your life will not be saved
The sailor fought for hours
His boat and life to save
The fury of the sea
Gave him no lead-way
Then a wave of great size
Hit the boat with strength
Causing it to capsize
The sailor trapped within
With fear in his heart
As his boat did sink
The sailor thought of his family
He would never again see
With little air remaining
In his casket of metal and steel
The sailor uttered his dying words
To his family he loved so dear
“I may not be here with you
For I am dead and gone 
But in my death remember
My love for you will live on”

©March 14, 2004 Kimberly Fluitt

Details | Alliteration | |


Frothing, frigid fjords
Fling forth fine stippled
Salmon, streaking upstream.
Roe-rich fish, flashing
Fat and fulgent:
Spurred to spawn, to spurt
Then sputter -- spasmodic.
Spectral. Unspared.

Details | Rhyme | |

Lost Hope

I’m riding along on this massive ship.
Titanic is the most fitting name for it.
Bold in grandeur and timeless beauty,
Downstairs neighbor to the rich and snooty.
Treated like cargo and feeling unimportant
By those who feel they are most important.
I escape my tiny quarters to go upon deck
As I feel the cold piercing the nape of my neck.
My breath creates steam as hot meets the cold.
I look into the night air, to the mysteries untold,
This journey to a place where life promises better.
I love her already and I never even met her.
Oh, America, the land of opportunities!
So excited to prosper within her communities.
Daydreams of hope are quickly interrupted
As the ship’s journey is violently disrupted.
I lean overboard to see what’s the confusion
And I hope what my eyes see is all an illusion.
Large and white, cold-hearted in the night,
An iceberg passes by invading my sight.
Shock has stopped my brain from reacting…
An unusual sound of water becomes distracting…
The water quickly covers the floor I stand on…
And all my hopes and dreams are soon to be gone.
The important don’t care about us at the bottom,
“Don’t try saving them; the water’s already got ‘em.”
I stare at the night and I don’t fight for my life.
The important has slashed my hopes with a knife.
Got us down here, alone, with no way out,
Stealing our hope only to replace it with doubt.
The water is to my stomach; I can’t feel my toes,
I find absolutely no comfort within my wet clothes.
The screams are haunting and so full of fear.
We at the bottom know our time is near.
The important at least have some kind of a chance
While we at the bottom catch a watery slow dance.
The water is to my chin and I’m frozen stiff.
My nose is too cold for me to take a sniff.
The water is to my nose and now I can’t breathe.
I can’t even stop to think how this is happening.
It all ends here in this dark, freezing ocean.
I’m too numb to feel any real emotion.
The water engulfs me as I float inside my grave,
Wishing I was somewhat important enough to save.
I’ve never met you but America, I say good-bye.
The middle of the ocean is where I am fated to die. 

Details | I do not know? | |

Down At Swan Lake

Down at Swan Lake
Where the grass is overgrown
And you swear there are bodies
Buried deep beneath the dry earth
That is where you’ll find me
And I have been sitting here for far too long
On a bridge made of bricks
Dedicated to someone important
And God only knows who
Well, I ran away and ended up here
Like I always do
My only companions are my own thoughts
And the rustle of dead leaves in the howling wind

Details | I do not know? | |


	Sister of Love suffocation in are harts of stone
A fish tossed from the sea to rot alone on the beach
Don’t you see it; panicking on shore?
No I don’t suppose you see much past the vale of hate
So consumed of War this sea swells and rages
Tossing emotions, like loves sister to the shores of death
The key to killing the human race

War Spreads
	With War comes great sacrifice
Yet they sacrifices all the wrong things
The last strands of our humanity
Leaving us to quarrel like beast

Shared Bread
	Their all starving; bickering and killing for food
The War has cleaned them out; filled them with only hate
Child sits alone, eating bread
He is not too young to know anything other than war
A hungry stomach is next to him
He does not fight, but tares off a piece and shares

I think kindness is a dyeing emotion; it’s the last strand of our humanity
 Without it we just have war. 

Details | Sonnet | |


Teal titans stretch above the fray,
so sure they won't be swept away.
Like Aesops' ant, they don't prepare
for chilling end in winters' stare.
Their colors burst and start to run.
It hits them hard that life is done.
As drill-bit winds and fading light
Force feathered song to hasty flight.
Brisk crimson billows blot the street,
Then clot in brown piles at their feet.
The snap of bark, slim tendrils flail
as veins gone cold begin to fail.
Numb fingers scrape the windowpanes
to snatch what little heat remains.
From frosted windows' golden glows,
we cowards peek as each one goes.
They plea for help in eerie moans.
We can not help. They die alone.
Such public death, not for the proud,
White winds will wrap their silver shroud.

Their lesson stands for all to see-
Might we die too, with dignity?
But even more, they seem to say-
Be ready when it comes our way.

Details | Free verse | |

Look To The Sea

With waves crashing to my feet repeat in timeless cavity;

Stranded through its idle pull in our ellaborate flames...
Look to the sea...

Onto a far off distance after she would marry me
Let all evil now flee,
The turning of the dial in its exquisite source
Look to the sea,

A waves tumbling then what to believe
A grand fulfillment in what to achieve;
In long lines we will find,
A tollerance for truth yet one drop of a dime

Look to the sea a reason to believe,
What have we achieved?

Our fallen economy collapsed at its seams!
Through the notion of laughter a tear drop fell
Amidst the excursion an inner swell

A line drawn in the sand,
When will we ever understand?

Details | Free verse | |

Mystique Love

she sat lonely
on the beach 
in the submissive darkness
the moonlight 
highlighting the red eyes
& the dark shadows beneath them
she looked so beautiful
as the golden strands of her hair 
blew in the zephyr
her lips quivered 
as if complaining
& then they curved 
in a dazzle
brightening the  
chiseled features
on the pale, white face
But the smile ruined
as a cruel wave crashed
into the reverie
reverie of 
the waters,
the stars,
only that she wasn’t alone…
In an aching hope, 
she stood up
& started calling out her love
no response.
she called louder
still no response.
she started walking down 
in the dark waters
Beckoning her love
she went deeper & deeper 
in the sea of love
now her words… 
a whisper
still deeper, she went
And then, still & silence
the next night witnessed 
a miraculous presence
a pair of stars shone brightly
at a rare corner,
blinking inexorably 
under the grey canopy 
of the sky
she had reached her destiny,
& the destiny of mystique love…

Details | Rhyme | |



My Ring of Fire sets ready to erupt
For I, Mother Nature, have had enough
Of pollutants invading reservoirs
And oil-drilled coastlines, sands coated by tar

         How thankful we are for this plentiful earth
         Proceeds and profits boast our corporate worth
         Our mistakes and errors in destructive ways
         Mother Nature will repair in a matter of days

Sea creatures poisoned by hazardous waste
Trash left on beaches by people in haste
Sea oats destroyed as construction proceeds
Turtle hatchlings wandering toward man made beams

         The land is aplenty with resources so fine
         We can wash away the debris, reap when mined
         Mercury, chemical and oils as well
         Mother Nature will dilute as we continue to sell

Whales wash up and expire on ocean shores
Battleships litter the deepest sea floors
With thinning ozone, sea temperatures rise
Igniting rage in my volatile eyes
         Another tanker runs aground of the Alaska coast
         Insurance companies payout, our boards in toast
         We can rely on our refineries and oil wells
         For Mother Nature will replace and it will all be swell

Earthquakes, tsunamis are my weapons
Earth’s last days may be man’s time to reckon

          We will reap the rewards as our conglomerates grow rich
          Mother Nature will allow, our industrial snitch

Details | Free verse | |

Quiet Vicissitudes

Quiet vicissitudes on a lonely shore. 

Memories fading with age as the family home crumbles.




Details | I do not know? | |


In the dark I sit
I don’t seem to exist.
This world
Is my coffin 
I’m buried alive,
Forced to see
The pain of mankind
Everyday is more intense 
Than the last,
It’s getting harder 
To breathe in the cask.
Loosing strength
Can’t go on
Much longer 
As I lay here
unconsciousness takes over.

Details | I do not know? | |

The Whirlpool



Devours the ferry
Roars in agony
Devil’s symphony
Angels to bury...

Details | Rhyme | |

The Awakening - Act 1

From our seas they came
A sleeping past
Depth sleepers they were 
As they leave us aghast

Our waters we thought
All tranquil and blue
Are running red
A quite different hue

The might of man
Was in downfall
Hence, from when we began

Sightings from all over
As our blues of depth
In modern theatre strike
Leave us red in reft

This, this 
Undescribable being
Honeycombed boned
Just what am i seeing

Buildings are complete
Bodies are drained
In modern day strain

There is a lull in their storm
They, i no longer see
But their aftermath
Is all around me

Mumified bodies
Children with mothers
Concave collapse
In dried out smother

I need to go with others
And gather our thoughts
In their rampage, pillage
We will soon be at nought

How do we react
To a hidden unknown
As our past has risen
Our life as we know it, blown

Details | Free verse | |

Little White Light

I walk outside and am 
By water.
Not by blue, happy water,
But by a black horizon.
A little white light,
Way out in the distance,
It was looking at me,
Looked like the pathway to 
It was telling me it was my 
To go,
And die.
I listened to that little light,
That was out in sight.
I took that moment, 
Said sorry to everyone,
Grabbed my blade
And met up with that light.

Details | Ode | |


immortal heart sings in this body of mine now…
memories of the love we made…

soul yearns in suffering to make amends…

immortal heart’s legend…
eternal waves…

my immortal heart heard a poet...
the shore with the chariot of your enchantment never faltering…

painting the waves in glorious tones of carnal lust ...
their fateful love turned to dust…

Details | Rhyme | |

"Dead Spirit Walking"

"Dead Spirit Walking" 

The currents in the sea...
ripples its way to be free...

The wind blows across the mirrored blue sky..
The sun goes down signaling its last goodbye...

The lesser light appears taking its place...
The greater one could no longer be traced...

The restless spirit walks disturbing the peace all around...
Everything grows quiet, there isn't a sound..

The spirit fights a turmoil from within...
Turmoil fighting peace; neither “wills” bend…

The soul decides whether to live or die...
Searching for a reason and why...

Inner peace the restless spirit seeks...
Life seems so lonely and so bleak...

The carvings of life are etched in...
Past, present memories are carried by the sea and wind....

Never to be revealed to all the days that follow...
Footprints at the edge of the sea, the sand now swallow...

The brooding sea ripples up angry waves...
Revealing that one more life would not be saved…..

Details | Blank verse | |

Happier Place

Standing alone 
On that cliff top 
In the pouring rain 
Alone with my thoughts 
Watching the sea 
Jump up at me 
Its waving hands 
Seeming to grasp for me 
I walk and lean over the edge 
Only for the hands to grow longer 
Calling for me 
And as I step away 
A mournful howl 
And cries of how much better it would be 
If I were dead 
No cares no worries 
No friends no pain 
Everyone peaceful 
Resting alone 
And I stop and turn 
Run fast towards the edge 
and the mournful calls 
Turn into gleeful yells 
Encouraging me 
To fly
Spread out my wings and fly 
Insurances of you can do it 
And I do it 
I fly away 
Away forever and the dark swallows me 
The grasping hands now hold me down 
I can see the light 
The day and the sun shines 
Now that I’m gone it shines 
Brighter that any other day 
And I smile in myself 
No longer struggling 
Being cradled in the arms of the sea 
Held under and carried away 
Knowing I’ve left home 
A happier place. 

Note: I wrote this a very long time ago now...

Details | Rhyme | |


He left home to pursue his lifetime dream,
all the while he thought he could manage.

the handsomest guy in town with elegance and flair;
they all waited for him outside as he fled into tomorrow. 

He worked for a law firm in downtown Manhattan,
and won many cases getting him lots of praises;
he bought a Lamburghini and was considered the toast of town,

Alaska was his destination, no big deal for a white man
used to cold weather and hard work anywhere he went;
stereotype or not he was proud and really wanted that job,
but going out to sea and catch fish wasn't somehow odd?

Glen spent two years in the land of coyotes and bears,
too often he got frostbite for not covering his ears;
as he remembered all the things his mother feared.

he coughed a lot and sneezed when the harsh Nordic wind blew
many thoughts ran through his depressed mind, once so jubilant.


By her hospital bed, he stood holding her cold hand,
and he wept not able to hold back his tears,
She squeezed his rough hand, then suddenly expired.

Details | Ballad | |



The oceans black waves cascade like rolls of dark silk onto the land and the salt mixes with the air fiercely, she can feel the texture brush across her rosy cheeks as her distressing eyes gaze outward.

“The sea, the sea is a horrible thing. It’s a cold, unforgiving mistress indeed. Women give their men to tread her harsh alluring waters and she sends back headstones with john doe markers. The sea covets mariners and never lets them go. She holds them hostage in her quaking current then cradles their voyage in her massive arms and with one monstrous hug she sends them to the oceans sandy floor below.

The sea, the sea is bitter and made of morbid intentions. Just like my grandfather, father, and younger brother my husband has been stolen by the sea. But alias, I will not cry because the tears my body weeps remind me of her heartless salty water. Destined or cursed I have been marked a widow, A window by the sea.

Details | Quatrain | |

For Lillian

Hidden from the light of stars
there sleeps my darling dead
and every passing day without her 
fills my heart with dread
her captivating hazel eyes
they used to shine so bright
I'd give the world to gaze in them 
as I fall asleep tonight
but she, a corpse without a grave
and I, a broken soul
I was bound to her and her to me
together we were whole
Now I'm the sun and she, the moon
together we cannot be
for now my darling Lillian
sleeps beneath the sea

(May, 2013)

Details | Ottava rima | |


Read me verses
vibrant with life,
not sad epitaphs;
paint me my portrait
with a lustrous light...
be a Cavaraggio, or Rembrandt,
and my replicas sell in the market
for a price that suits any wallet.

I was given a name,
and with gilt I embellished it;
gladsome to glitter and giggle,
blooming as a rose bud caressed
by the wind's soft breath;
and its seed will be transported 
far-away, to germinate by a godly temple,
and there I will meet a favorable, clement fate. 

A tombstone is the place
for the soul's eternal rest,
my bones will lie within it...these brittle bones
once covered by flesh, but its spirit
will depart to ascend from the realm of mortals;
there with the angels of Paradise I will write my praises,

Read me verses
vibrant with life;
epistles that the New Testament's
devoted scribes wrote.
Sing me odes of the glory to come, put aside
the longest elegy, don't trifle
with my final wish, everything else is trivial;
look into the Heavens, I will smile... 

Copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci

Details | Rhyme | |

Stranger at Halloween

On this Halloween night
A stranger came to my home
My parents invited him in
From his cold nightly roam
I hear them talking
As he comes every year
My father distraught
My mother in tears
He stays for a while
As they chat away
Sometimes they laugh
But, mostly it's grey
Its hours later
As i hear the front door
This stranger has gone
Just like the years before
I'm older now
And as curious as can be
As i follow the stranger
Down a dark local alley
In the distance i see him
To the cemetery he heads
This night of all nights
To the place of the dead
Brave as i am
To follow him there
Its as far as i go
From a distance I'll stare
He disappears
Into the mist
As i head off home
My question is wished
Mum and dad
Who was that man
He comes every year
For a chat and a dram
Son, the man who left
Died so long ago
During World War II
At Scapa Flow
He can never rest
For his soul is forsaken
The loss of his colleagues
In the war were taken
On October 14
The crew of his ship
In torpedo assign
A German U-Boat 
The U47
Delivered it's load
And sent them to heaven
He's a lost lonely soul
Who stayed in this house
For he always returns
To his loving young spouse
That's the story
On this Halloween eve
Of this tragic young man
And his roaming grieve

Details | Rhyme | |

She's a Runaway


Details | Rhyme | |

Lifeboat men so brave


A personal tribute to the man and woman of the R.N.L.I. 
"The Royal National Lifeboat Institute". 

Bravest men amongst the brave, 
The lifeboat volunteers. 
Precious people saving lives, 
As they've done for many years. 

Through the waves of raging water, 
Being battered by the storm. 
These precious people saving lives, 
Heroes one and all. 

Being called in all conditions, 
Whether sunshine, snow or rain. 
Never knowing what's ahead, 
Or will they see their homes again!!! 

Hurricanes and twenty foot waves, 
Smashing at your soul. 
Dedicated lifeboat men, 
With a never ending goal. 

So many crewmens lives been lost, 
Still many lives they save. 
Always putting themselves at risk, 
These lifeboat men so brave. 

To the R.N.L.I. volunteers, 
With such courage there's only few.   
May the seasons always bring you home, 
As the Lord watches over you.

Details | Rhyme | |


         Some people view it as a loss,
                    others call it God's gain.

         I believe she is going home,
                to rejoice and be with her family again.

         A beautiful seashell thriving in the sand,
                          is now going out with the tide.

        Her parents are beckoning,
             calling her home, their wishes she will abide.

Details | I do not know? | |

Caelum Noctis

A sea of seething, frothing sky
Condensed, concluded by the night
No point of reference, and no self
Can lie undrowned in these soul-wells

A faded light
Yet fades from sight
Is lost within the self-same rain of sky
The misty veil that shrouds all earth tonight

The sea of tufted, densed elixir
Floats beneath me as I see
The earth now fade forever from my sight
As I rise, and rise both from and into night

Details | I do not know? | |


The cadence swells in the starlit sky
The light still dwells when night is nigh
That one last ray that lingers long
Fades with majesty; is gone.
One last kiss goodnight
One more dawn tonight
One more time

How can I resist my nature
How can I give in to sorrow
How can I rejoice
Be sure that all that I have felt
Will be beautiful tomorrow

In time, all fades to gray
In time, lost to the wave
In time, distilled and saved
Salved by the mists of time
Perfection comes to time
One moment, stretched into eternity
One moment, 'fore the day is gone
Will last, will linger on my tongue
As I see

That there is nothing left to say
That there is nothing left to do
But to observe
But to perceive
That ray, falling deep into the starlit few

Cast into the colors of the night
Falling on forever out of sight


Do I dare to taint the moment?
With one thought, my heart is rent
Forever from the prism of my tears
The night reflects into the ancient years
By perfection sent
Into eternity
By a crystal cry
A moment
       in me

The thrill of beauty in the wave
The sea that swells, the sea that saves
The waves that lap against the shore
The waves that, depthless, are no more

The moon that rises casts a light
And in the water is a sight
A billion, billion nothings that appear to me the sky
A shadow of reality that would but be a lie

To see the points of light
My eyes rejoice the night
But in that shadow, in that plane
So phantomed once, I see again
And a moment now is shattered
Into a thousand fragments at my feet
As I see
   the end in it all

Ah, the night will be the night
And the sea will be the sea
Until the question bears
   and drowns in me

Details | Rhyme | |


Under a starless sky, 
the sails billow in the wind
and across the deck surges the tide, 
while the ship's wheel spins.

The wind carries with it a hypnotic melody, 
luring sailors with a passionate plea.
Eyes captivated by their seductive beauty
and blind to ships broken on the reef. 

Long, shiny hair in various hues, 
green descending scales on their backs
and lustrous eyes, bewitching you, 
leaving you oblivious to the trap.

Slowly sailors inch to the rail
and then they start to dive.
While others swept away by scaly tails, 
but none will see another night.

They kiss you with honeyed lips, 
letting you inhale their sweet breath.
Then, entrap you with their lovely limbs
and drag you into the deep and death.

Details | Free verse | |

free verse 1

this is my first time actually trying free verse. 
any help is appreciated

we live in mingled symmetry 
with port holes in our face
stepping back we see the past
while stepping forward its gone again
you see the water rising slow
as if the ocean had swallowed us
dragging us down, further than we thought
but no one has yet to panic
we know the end must come
and come it shall

we looked into the waters depths
to see if its alright
the light has dimmed from the surface
not much is left to see.
a piercing shriek escapes the blue
and reaches inside our ships walls
we wont be back to the ones we loved
but panic we shall not

our blood stays warm in the face of this new threat
the water seeping passed the cracks of the boards
how the ship has withstood so much
none of us can be sure
intact it stays, as we hit the bottom
the cracks get larger with the force
a spray of salty ocean infiltrates
ignoring everything in its path.

Details | Rhyme | |

On Dying Young

Feel the sea wind cold and stark,
as the arrow hits its mark,
piercing, pulsing, throbbing heart,
can your eyes see in the dark?

Thin arms inked with dark tattoos
grip the sands of deja vu,
earth and ocean rendevous,
waves of green and turquoise blue.

Soon he would turn twenty-one,
dying as the day is done,
roulette with a Russian gun,
spins the chamber just for fun.

In the sea awaits the shark,
tide recedes, leaves bloody marks,
he murmurs now, his last remark:
can your eyes see in the dark?

©Danielle White

(Inspired by a young CF patient.)

Details | Rhyme | |

The band played on

In my dreams I was on board
As the ocean waved
and the engines roared
As The captain ordered
Full steam ahead
And a lady passed me dressed in red
Her dress of scarlet, fringed with lace
And a delicate mask across her face
Faster, faster the ship sailed on
As the waiters served 
And the band played on

In my dreams I was frozen still
As the Cabin crew gave a chilling shrill
Whistles blew
Cries shook the deck
And a lady passed me soaking wet
Her dress of Scarlet, with a fringed lace torn
And a mask of fear she now adorned
Faster, faster the ship sailed on
As the waiters fled
Yet the band played on

In my dreams I was not on board
I was drifting back above it all
Boats were dropped
As passengers fled
But not the lady dressed in red
Her Dress of scarlet with a fringed sash instead
And upon her face a mask of dread
Faster, faster, the ship's crew fought on
As bow she dipped
And the ship was gone

In my dreams I was there I'm sure
Heard children cry, and a sailor swore
Watched the sea as calm restored her pace
And a ship was gone without a trace
A lady watched in a scarlet dress
Her hands in water, sea caressed
Slower, slower, her fingers spread
Mother to the now lost dead
Tears of salt
Her children gone
As the ocean stilled
Yet the band played on

Titanic you have touched me deep
As the memory of the lost who sleep
Beneath the waves, the oceans still
I dream again, and I always will

Details | Quatrain | |


It's awfully quite at the end of August, placid fireflies
come out before the appearance of stars;
how tender, how beautiful are the rolling waves
in the dark sea kissed by the radiant moonbeams!

Absorbed in deep thought, I welcome another evening of solitude
with a peace that is more perplexing and intriguing than silence;
calmness stupefies, even more than the serenity inside...

Crystalline, clear water splashing and bubbling,
reaching the spot where I am profoundly thinking, 
bringing a soothing feeling after a very hot afternoon...
hoping not to lose the brilliance of the dotted moon!

Tired mind, rest and refresh yourself at sunrise,
detach yourself from the constant habit of searching and creating;
thoughts that lead to pen, to finally become liberating!



Copyright 2009 by Andrew Crisci

Details | Concrete | |

The Ocean

A mystery 
always moving
but going no where
though beautiful
terrifying in every way
love it
hate it
admire it
shun it
all in all
it's actions are uncertain
it  floats about
giving life
receiving life
taking life
it makes the cycle complete
never responding to question
the leader of all existence
without it we are lost
with it we think we are safe 
but are we?
should we be afraid?
what will it do next?
swallow us whole?
we have no way of knowing
what we know
is that it's buzzing
waiting for the right time
to make us aware 
but the problem is
we dont know what to be aware of
and that's what should scare us

Details | Rhyme | |

Generations of Valor

          They stand together
          Soldiers young and old
          As we sit down beside them
          Their stories unfold

Tell me son
What happened to you
Please take your time
I wish to hear you through

    I was out on patrol
    Looking for improvised devices
    Their made of plastic now
    For modern sacrifices

    But this one was different
    It was set on remote
    Triggered at distance
    As the enemy gloat

    Catapulted, bleeding
    As i land on the sand
    My face lacerated
    As are my hands

    My left hand has gone
    As are my eyes
    My emotions are drained
    I can no longer cry

    I am flown home
    To Edwards Air Base
    Not the way i left
    A new tomorrow i face

My brave young son
I shall cry for you
Yes tomorrow is new
But we will see it through

    As he wipes his tears
    His son says to his father
    Tell me your story again
    So my thoughts again gather

Well it was so long ago
And although i am old
The horrors of wars
Should always be told

It was the 6th of June
The day the war had turned
And what we fought for

I was one of thousands
As we hit the beaches
Under heavy fire
Bodies bleeding, bodies bleached

After being pinned down for hours
We finally made a breakthrough
Their lines broken
Our determination pursued

Our objective, Bayeux
To cut off the road to Caen
Re-assemble and group
As we mean to go on

We were on the outskirts
As a 109E attacked
My platoon was strafed
As its bullets impact

I was hit three times
In my legs and chest
Shipped back home
Asking why i was blessed

After the war
In the Army i stayed
As an injury councillor
For other wars have been played

          Father and son stood together
          Hugged for tomorrow
          Yes, there will be more wars
          And what they bring is sorrow

Details | Free verse | |


After millions of seconds,
every second seeming,
much longer than the other.
All we wanted was good news, 
all we wanted was you...

 A night with little excitement 
only listening to the music, 
and watching stars make lame jokes,
 my sister and I heard a ring,
only faint cause the phone was outside.

Praying that everything was all right
we only wanted you safe,
we hear a sob from my mom.
As the moment my life fell apart
the good news never came.
You ran,
you jumped,
you swam, 
you quit.
I don't understand.

We still haven't stopped asking questions,
Why you? Why us? Why then?
Those questions will never be answered.
It's been almost five years

When you left you took a part of us with you,
My mom says hello, 
Can you say hello to Ashley for me? 
I hope you take her camping, and watch the stars at in the sky.
I hope everything's alright.

I know your dad came to join you,
Does it make you happy when people join you,
maybe that's what was going through my sisters mind,
maybe we all miss you more than you'd expect

Ever since you've been gone,
there has been a silence,
never questioned cause we don't want to face the truth
I wonder if you had more time if you wouldn't have done it,
do you regret it, or do you like the silence in the clouds.

We will never understand why you ran.
Life hasn't been the same since,
it's gone done hill from there,
you will always be in my thoughts.

Details | Rhyme | |


When shall we meet again
To share a stolen hour?
When shall we meet again 
In our own secret bower?
When shall we meet again
To shower kiss after kiss?
When shall we meet again
For our sweet moments of bliss?
When shall we meet again
To embrace with caress and sighs?
When shall we meet again
To claim love's richest prize?

The sea may stand in our way,
The sea may flow without end,
Time may be our enemy,
Time may be our friend.

Time and tide may keep us far apart,
But we both live on in the other's heart.

Details | Dramatic monologue | |






Details | Rhyme | |


Denise is barely twelve and smart,
she has been an orphan for sometime,
but since her mom passed away,
she grew up as lonely child...
generosity was instilled early
in her little, empty heart.

She made her first paper star
when Sirius, the brightest one,
appeared and hung over
the twinkling, navy blue horizon...
thinking of her mother's illness,
and to her she was a pretty princess.

And with love and eagerness, Denise 
sang a melancholic song every evening,
feeling her presence with that smiling face;
other girls had mothers to sing them lovely lullbyes,
so Sirius was deeply touched, and seeing 
her loneliness got some nightgales to lull her to sleep.

I've made a plea today, through the Archangel Gabriel,
to ask God to give the star, Sirius, to Denise,
and in return I would do many a good deed;
and tell everyone the wonderful news with a thrilling voice,
and would the Almighty, who made this gem to gleam,
grant me another wish...a wish perhaps too impossible?

Nights passed, and no heavenly message was sent to me,
and Gabriel never returned to ease my restlessness and fear;
one night as I fell asleep...his voice ordered me to listen,
" Your Father has granted your wish...He has seen a sincere love;
now Sirius is Denise's star!" And waking up from that vision,
I looked outside and there she was gazing at it with awe!

Entered in Lind-Marie Bariana's contest, " Shining Star "

Details | Free verse | |

To Sea

To Sea

I would like to think that
The big, white birds soaring
Over choppy waters
Or the way my camera captures
A straight, bold beam of light
Is a vision of sorts –
A gift from you,
To me.
This vision would say:
		I’m still around,
Right here –
I linger where our bodies first touched on
Warm summer ground”
I would like to think that
You are watching us,
Now –
The strips of bark have become
Sea worthy vessels;
The children, captains of 
They run amok, marvelously
On this jutting peninsula
Just as, once, you and I.
I would like to think that
We haven’t lost touch –
Not really;
You are merely seeking solace in
Strong, biting winds as they
Blow by the dockside;
That you are merely warming
Wings yet too weak to
I would like to believe that 
The caress of breath on my
Shoulder is you.
I turn.
You are gone.

Details | Rhyme | |


Sargasso D Johnson
Fourteen days adrift time slowly slipped 
on the good ship Cavalier 
Becalmed, morose, no water they sipped 
drank rum to calm their fear 
The fog was thick o'er water and ship 
On the swell it heaved and slid 
They cooked a brew of weevily stew 
while the scurvy came unbid 
For days on end they searched a way 
to leave this fog behind 
no salt sea spray but the fog did stay 
And the captain lost his mind 
The men aloft could see not much 
And the cook he often swore 
The meat was full of maggots and such 
and green as the forest floor 
the boatswains mate didn't hesitate 
he swung from the mast at four 
the knot he made to hold his weight 
was said by some quite poor 
Old Will he said it should be done 
ten coils on the noose for sure 
they lingered on this end of one 
for soon there'd be four more 
though darkness came who was to blame 
who brought the curse on the ship 
they searched in vain for the old boatswain 
then over the side he'd slip 
come dawn of day a ship they say 
came looming from the fog 
its masts were bent and sheets were rent 
and the captain called for grog 
just one man stood near the deck fore grate 
it's timber ghostly grey 
perhaps he was the masters mate 
n'er a glance he cast our way 
we hailed him then with all our might 
not a move e'er came from him 
as the ship was drifting out of sight 
the head rolled from his skeleton thin 
Old Will now said "yes mates we're dead 
this is the sargasso sea 
there's no escape from this" he said 
"only death will set you free" 
so madness came some went insane 
rat poison cook did share 
the captain with an axe was slain 
and death was everywhere 
corpses now bobbed around the ship 
like jelly fish near a beach 
their accusing eyes attention grip 
stone dead but out of reach 
when I alone was left to moan 
the fate befallen me 
a breeze had made the rigging groan 
and we moved upon the sea 
all night I stood on the deck of wood 
till day brought clear sunlight 
the bloody fog was gone for good 
but something wasn't right 
a whiff of smoke from an old clay pipe 
like the one old Will did use 
I turned and ducked and dodged the swipe 
but the blade my arm did bruise 
Old Will he says "You have to die 
to break the curse you used" 
His eye was dead but his grin was wry 
and death walked in his shoes 
he swung the axe as he lumbered forth 
and it lodged in the mast close by 
I punched him south west east and north 
and over the side to die. 
climb the ladder? 

Details | Rhyme | |

As i Sit Here on This Rock

My Dear,
Another stormy night, down the Californian coast
Your ship lies torn and twisted, while the reaper quietly toasts
Tomorrow i will start, a new day in my life
My darling i give to you, this letter on the waves

My entry for Brian Strand's contest " My Dear "

Details | Dramatic monologue | |


Dreams are the only
after life we know:
the place where the children
we have become;
there are as many leaves as
in their migrations
as birds whose deaths we learn of
by the single feather
left behind: a clue
a particle of sleep
caught in the eye
they are as irritriviable as sand 
when the sea creeps up
its long knife glittering
in its teeth
to claim it's patrimony
sometimes my father
in knickers and cap
waits on that shore,
the dream of him
a wound not even morning can heal.

Details | I do not know? | |

Cold Case

Night-time wanderer led asunder
Snarls voice my carnivorous hunger
Feral gait; silent under the thunder
A corpse would cause the village to wonder

A corpse completely drained of blood
Pooled inside my mouth like a flood
Beneath it; barely churned-up mud
The body fell with a gentle thud

From the thirst, momentarily free
Echoing in my mind; the dead man's last plea
His body tossed into the sea
So the murder couldn't be traced back to me

Every cold case began somewhere...

Details | Elegy | |

A Dying Whisper

A ruddy tide strained
silting a dying whisper
salty knotted hair swirled
tainting the sweetness of november 

A dark elegy, a classic
of true love betrayed 
selfless love perpetrated
an agonizing malaise

Consumed by grief
lost to the lovemaking of june
ebullient eyes now stoic
fixed by the calling of the moon

Holy vows broken 
scattered upon the ebb and flow of the sea
whose lies silenced autumn's resurrection
the listless Lorelei 

Details | Free verse | |

Last sighting

Still searching we walk to edge of tide
To where waters tickle the toes 
At different edge each night
Here you were last seen
That dreadful night

Washed away with tidal sands and seas
Your mind tormented with unease
Released by natures blessing
As each wave comes over
Fleeting moments lost
As older things

Your footprints gone only whispers remain
Your life we shared and loved, we cared
Left to us are solemn memories
Of many days gone by
And still we try 
To find your
Lonely soul

And so the seaside weathers gently call
And seagulls cry around rocky shore
Last sighting of you was walking
In the sand one misty morning
And although not one print 
Was  left for us to find
There is some peace
From knowing that
You were smiling

Details | Free verse | |

Deep Blue Under

The sound of the shore
It's everlasting
If you're silent,

Waves crash over coral rocks 
And reefs
Soon you hear fizzing water
Creeping up from behind your bare feet.
You move quickly,
But not quick enough.

The water rises as you try to escape
It's wrathful invitation.
Every step you take
The water quickens.

You yell for help,
But no one is there to hear you.
You yell once more,
But the crashing waves muffle your cries.
The deep blue water has taken you down
Into its vengeance world. . .

Where you can't breathe,
Can't see.
You're weak from the struggle of survival
So you just give up,
Without thinking of the ones who love you
As if they never exist.
With your last seconds of life,
You whisper "Goodbye."

Details | I do not know? | |

Heart to Heart

Tears caress the silken cheek,
Her love was lost upon the deep.
Never to be heard again,
Memories whispered in the rain.

Deepest dark his bones do lay,
Waiting for his love to say.
"Here we are again united,
As once more our lives are righted".

Cry no more, my dearest one,
Again we'll meet under the sun.
Your days of tears and tender sorrows,
Lay them down, for waste of morrows.

Hand in hand the time will come,
When sight of you towards I'll run.
Never to again depart,
We are forever, heart to heart.

Details | Rhyme | |

Counting Down

5 - I try to rise above
4 - I think I see your love
3 - I feel it pull me down
2 - I lower my head and frown
1 - I don't want to drown

Details | Free verse | |

A Thorn in my Side

                                            A thorn in my side, Im torn from inside
Of a time partially forgotten but my memories betray me and take me down that ride
through the death of my pride, under duress, when I tried to hold back but cried 
Through the love and the pain, through the sun, through the fire through the rain
If it's over than its over, how can you deny my love, how could you deny more aim
I gave you all the love I had and more, but no matter what the seeds I sowed with you the
benefits I never reaped it, you left me alone when I most needed, and kissed me on the
cheek like Judas when he betray Jesus, baby you can keep it, left me all alone to walk on my
journey, sick going through chemo life in danger, with the person that I loved with all my
heart absent, left alone to be comforted by a stranger, It's all good even though broken
and             bitter I hold no anger, From sea to shining sea to death of my destiny
Keeping it kept, with my boots on, when you need me, you know I'm there
Most certinaly, open the curtain, look to the sky God could see that I'm hurting .

Details | Rhyme | |

Hero's return in Armada Mass

June 6th 1944
An Armada masses at Europe's door
Five sector landings, 160,000 troops
On the following beaches, our hero's would swoop
Utah, Omaha, Juno, Sword and Gold
Allow me to write, as my story unfolds
We, 50th Northumbrian Infantry
To repatriate Europe's lost countries
The Devonshire, Hampshire regiments but two
The Allied might in this incredible feud
Beach landing storm, between Le Hamel - Ver sur Mer
Sectors Item, Jig and King
Is where the 79th Armoured would sing
Beachhead established, Mulberry harbour plan
Reaching Bayeux, cut the road to Caen
East we will go, meet with the Canadian troops
Juno Beach they landed in their infantry groups
King sector assault, casualties high
Our tanks now landed, their shells fly
Enemy positions pounded
Men of both die
Jig sector assault, Le Hamel fell
Village by village, only time will tell
Creully and Crepon reached and taken
Item sector, commando strong
Harbour to take, enemy thrawn
Important target, supplies to land
Eventual demise of this German stand
From this landing, our masses advanced
Through deadened lands, i never glanced
To absorb the sights that i witnessed there
To look ahead, no stop no stare
As i sit at home and close my eyes
Not knowing whether to despise
Being in the middle of carnage hell
Our Hero's fell, but I'm here to tell
   " Dedicated to Stanley Elton Hollis - the one and only recipient 


Details | Free verse | |


Her mouth brings nothing but 
As breathtaking as she appears,
I am captain, I am king,
I am looking Hell in the eyes and I 
cannot turn away,
She reaches out for my hand,
This creature of the depths,
She has been the downfall of 
thousands before,
Though each man in turn was 

This daughter of the gods begs to 
show me the deep,
Who needs the sun, who needs to 
Who needs to see what they have 
already seen?
Embrace me, you heavens, draw my 
soul to thee,
Who needs the sun, who needs to 

The fables passed through 
The strait and narrow is a 
dangerous path,
She is written off as myth 'till she is 
before your eyes,
Faulty navigator, eager widow 
The cyclone leaves me in awe,
I willingly accept my impending fate,
Magnetic forces in the water,
Draw a portrait of a sailor's grave

Details | I do not know? | |

Oceans Judgement Day

There she sits quietly stalking

Waves of sin behold the mocking

As tides of grin now stir a calling

For its awake release dark barking

Why do you allow its call

As she is nowhere beyond the wall

Waves of power etching a stall

For you to lie as she takes it all

Wind so strong from devils breath

Blowing tides to release your death

Ships of souls creating wrath

For nows the time of the Oceans path

The waves incur a special deed

As you declare the end of your breed

For watch her power rise as you plead

And watch your wrists end as they bleed

The stormy night now in brew

Your soul in flight for its untrue

As they unite for days taboo

The storm is done now you are through

Wind so calm as you pass light

Coming home for second fright

As all the souls untrue unite

Judgement day from Oceans bite

Details | I do not know? | |

My Mercurial Soul

Silver washes through the sea
Veins trace life deep into me
White transpires, falling free
From this Tree of Mercury

Thus have I seen love's bright sheen
Shining forth the last sunbeams
One white light 'midst all the sea
This crying Tree of Mercury

Orbs of sunlight drip to dirt
Where veins of life spread through the earth
Searching, blindly, for the rain
That seeps up to drip down again

These silver veins stretch through the sea
In search of sunlight as it fades
And all across the crimson waves
Is falling rain, sorrow to sea
Tears of the Tree
Of Mercury

A sunset slips so slowly to
A garnet rain with silver strewn
These crimson tears of love for you
Fall as the sunset fades.
The moon
Now rises, shines so pale upon
A night that never will know dawn

So still, alone, I'll always be
This crying Tree of Mercury

Details | Quatrain | |

My Filthy Fire

My ship of dreams I build no more
I hack to fragments my vain desire
To toss like trash and be ignored.
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

To sail the seas and not return
My ship sinks in the straight of dire.
Its keel has split, its hull to burn
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

To hear the Sirens song too long
Uncharted seas with sails which tire.
With all my dreams and fancies gone
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

I pondered from my window long
And fanned my passion ever higher.
I cursed "His" name to sing my song.
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

For fortuned Isles my eyes did cry.
My dreams I leave to whom I sire
For I am cremated before I die
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

Resurrecting souls my dreams has killed
To pull myself from deep quagmire.
To warm my heart which time has chilled.
Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.

It is for sure, not springtime here
Shorter days, how bare "His" trees.
Looking back pulls eyes to tear
For waste and loss of all my greed.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire
Now as to turn from what it seems
Left to me a works of priers
Never to sail my ship of dreams.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.
Heap high this waifs, to be no loss.
No wisdom from my follies liar
Burn Oh! Burn you holocaust.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.
My sins may perish with my ships.
To right my wrongs I now aspire.
So let them burn without my kiss.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.
This cord of which I gladly burn
Dreams or follies of mud are mire
No loss to me and no concern.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.
Stream me toward sweet isles of peace
Bright flash and gleam of my attire
Shall fall in lour of my decease.

Upon my filthy, driftwood fire.
When in my grave I take my task
Point for my Lord my vain desires
In chilling embers and cold gray ash.

Details | I do not know? | |

Rescued On A Rubber Boat

Rescued on a rubber boat
A toy ship built for one
Not meant to save you from
Driving downpours and malicious monsoons
Solely a transportation device
From one heart to another
The tune of the obsessive ocean
Knocks me out, and I’m floating to the shore
Half mast, half passed

Details | Free verse | |


I am the soldier's worst nightmare,
I come at night as he lays sleeping,
With shouts and guns firing, I torment him,
He awakens in a cold sweat, screaming.

Sometimes I bring the horrors of killing,
Of innocent women and children wounded,
Of family pets with legs blown off,
O f blood soaking--making green grass red.

Whether in the Army now, or fifty years back,
I can still awaken him with my horrors,
Whether soldier, sailor, or marine, I am there,
Yes, I am his worst nightmare.

Sometimes, I am the enemy begging for his life,
Then pulling a gun and trying to shoot,
Making him think that even an act of mercy,
Can result in more pain then he can bear.

Yes, I am the soldier's worst nightmare.

Details | Free verse | |

To the Liquid Edge

She went into the dipping gold
rising the liquid dream
A medallion of innocent heritage
in the fluid of dusk, serene

I skimmed to the water's edge in haste
to capture this moment of peace
In a turmoil second this capsizing life
brought in bones of my loved one, 
and memories deceased.

Details | Free verse | |


Strolling along the seashore
Leaving her footprints in the sand
The tide washes over the shore
It was like the footsteps had never been.

She shades her eyes and scans the horizon
For a ship that is supposed to come in
That carries her precious loved one
She has waited for so long to see again.

She watches as the ship sails nearer
Breathless as her anticipation grows
The ship docks and the passengers unload
She ask for him but no one knows.

Oh where oh where can her loved one be
He has been gone for such a very long time
He could not have just forsaken her
For their love was deep and strong.

The last to exit the ship was the captain
He walked slowly as he desended down
He did not sem to notice the beautiful lady
Silently waiting in her white wedding gown.

Rumor has it they were to be married
By the Captain of the highest rank
When the high winds of a raging storm
Capsized the ship and it sank.

Her body washed ashore, but his was never found
It is said she still roams the seashore
Waiting fervently for her missing groom
Even though she realizes she will see him no more.

Details | Elegy | |

my love for him

I lay in his arms
sleep but aware of his presence
I dream of blue oceans
I dream of blue seas
each warm kiss I feel from him
the water becomes wetter in my dreams
I dream of  a shipwreck
we're deserted out at sea
so I sing of my love for him in the sweetest melody
and I sing of my love for him hoping he'll swim along
I sing of my love for him as he slowly becomes the sea
the love I sing for him carries on through decades eternally
now I sing to collect souls
I cursed the sea to stir the waters and wreck the sailors boats
I sing of my love for him in the sweetest melody
to lure in and claim the lives as sacrifices 
for my love I lost at sea

Details | Rhyme | |

Operation Dynamo

Exodus on a massive scale
1940 under assail
Three hundred thousand
Fathers and sons
Dunkirk evacuation
From the Hun
Not seen for hundreds of years
To save our hero's, relay their fears
1500 ships of many sorts
Arrived on mass
Naval escort
British and French
Beached and battered
Quest to save Europe
Defeated and shattered
Queues of troops
Line the sands
Await their fate
Strands of man
Luftwaffe scream over head
Drop their cargo, inevitable dead
Explosions softened, by the Dunkirk sands
Saved so many of the waiting strands
Hail the sky, the RAF
Contained the hun from machine gun strafe
Their dedication in foggy skies
The ultimate saving of many lives
The aftermath of this unbelievable task
And the dedication of this incredible ask
Organisation on the grandest scale
For in the future we will not fail
To free Europe, another Armada will sail
              who returned to do, what only hero's can do " 


Details | Rhyme | |

The Murderous Run to Safety

As we climbed down the nets
Into the landing crafts
Veterans of theatre
With a mixture of drafts

In the distance through the spray
We could sight foreign lands
Normandy it is
After many months being planned

Closer and closer
With explosions all around
Our time is nearing 
Will we reach these foreign grounds

The landing craft ramp
Drops with a splash
As we run through the water
Along the sands we dash

High on the cliff tops
Spandau's spray the beach
Bullets ripping flesh
Whilst gun emplacments preach

The lucky ones made it
As the unfortunate lay dead and dying
Limbs torn from souls
Some starring at the skies

As we shelter below the cliffs
We encourage the ones who follow
As they rush through the dead and red
Before death has them swallowed

For a moment i closed my eyes
And thought " why in the hell am i here "
When a bullet zips my helmet
So startled, that death was near

To the cliff tops we must climb
Pipe bombs lead the way
Barbed wire blown to bits
As our snipers have their say

Below the gun emplacements
Grenades in precision lob
Amongst our bitter enemy
A few more lives we've robbed

After many hours of fighting
The cliff tops we have taken
As i look down on the beaches
Redded by the ones, who will never awaken 


Details | Personification | |


The tide calls
The tide falls
The tide threatens 
To swallow us all

The moon swells
A tolling bell
Ever chimes
The midnight yell

The waves swirl
Spray, they hurl
Upon the rocks
Upon the girl

She sits there, night
After night, after fright
Dwelling on
What happen might

She twirls her hair
So golden, fair
Around a finger
Like the ring she'll wear

She doesn't love
Marriage on a whim
Her worst mistake
From her life she can't trim

The cold waters invite
Its black eddy delights
As she falls beneath its crest
And sinks with all her might

Think things all the way through

Details | Rhyme | |


I can still feel the sea and the first time my eyes met you,
And when they were first charmed and caressed by your loveliness.
It was when we were young and the sea enjoined us as two.
And all we ever had...were arms to hold and lips to kiss!

Then sometime later I captured you, and you became mine.
And your restless arms and sweet lips were all I ever knew!
And though darkness often came and the sun would seldom shine,
Even when the sea waned...I knew I would always love you.

For seldom did I tell you and few were the times you heard
All the meaning you gave my life--all the joy you still give!--
There, in your eyes, my love, and in every unspoken word,
Even when there were unkind words no lover should forgive!

Ah, that the sea created me for you, and you for me,
And enjoined a perfection no poet’s words ever said,
Proves I love you more than the passionate waves love the sea!
And always will, my love, though the sea has left you for dead.

Details | Free verse | |



Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell. 1

Cross legged I await 
Heavens beams, to embrace
to bundle to lash with twine
	drifting wood 
While the waves whip the beache's grace

I hold the smooth forked roots in hand 
Roots in time can break stone 
and mold it like the water is able 
Water that feeds the root 
Sun that feeds the fingers

I ask not much old sea
Dashing dead against stones
Barnacles tear at flesh and vessel
low birds impale the shell
to eat salty flesh

Everything and nothing is water
Eternal yet fleeting
Comforting yet cold
Supportive yet unwieldy
Reflective yet transparent
Hungry yet quenchless

Ye oldest mare 
whose rising breasts swell
and hungry opens cavernous
to consume both breast and beam
Her victims wash about my feet

Ripen, swell abreast
resign this earth

Death who she knows best
who winged I've seen
who in decay keeps fertile, she
who drinks endless of streams immortal

I await her sea-nymphs call for me
Though I alone shall not quell
her endless thirst, 
	when half submersed.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell

Deus pasit corvos*

Tempest 1. 2   (1)
God feeds the ravens*


Details | Haiku | |

Red Tide

Fishes puffed and stiff
Seaweed froth as beds for them
Red tide dreams tonight...

Details | Free verse | |

Death's bell

Oh quivering earthbound leaf
You lie so perished in the icy snow
You stood out along the smeared snow that lined the streets
And now darkened shadows hide in doorways
Wreaths that have faded from their jade freshness
Piled up along the streets 
To be collected into the disparaging trash cans 
Your time is fatigued  
Your purpose fulfilled, once intrigued 
But blowing in the vernal winds of tomorrow 
Await your seed 
Thriving on a spring aurora
The chimes carried a tune in flight

Details | Ekphrasis (Ecphrasis) | |

Seashore Madness

This place is mine especially in the spring.
Distressed and stranding my soul in guilt.
Sometimes as I sit here, I hear the bells ring.
Of the schooner, my lover of the sea built.
He sailed away many times before that night.
I awaited each return with eager, endearing love.
Each time I saw his lady of the sea, sweet delight.
Thanking the glorious power in the Heavens above.
Until that one fateful night of a storm of such rage,
Took my lover and his lady of the sea, down under,
Jealousy devours my soul now, as seen upon this page.
For his lady of the sea I ponder, placed with his plunder.
She took my lover from me and here I sit in sadness.
She now has my lover forever, and I only madness.

Woman at Seashore - French painting - 1850/1950 - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Words my muse gave me while viewing this painting.
written for contest

Details | Lyric | |

sailing to the end


Patiently sitting on this grave mute ship
On which time had cast a spell
Around her endurance on the water of life
Hindering her sustainance that she strife
Against the stormy nights which dwells 
At the heart of the sea, compelling her to trip

Old as proclaimed by her once youthful job
To avoid wreckage she lowered her anchor
Paused for strength admist a great race
Which other vessels in the ocean now face
To the roar of the thunder, the sea cries for encore
While whirling was the wind taking us around his orb

Towards the habour of the sea of life
We sail hopelessly on its solitude for a sight 
Or glare at the beauty that was said
To be visible not to the living but dead
The shortcut many have found was with stormy Nights
Over the vast sea but with one heart, we still drive 

Details | I do not know? | |

Ships at Sea

 Ships at sea the moonlight gray,
  As I ponder and I pray.
 Three lost souls forever gone,
  As I weap so very very long.
 Show my sorrow to the dead,
  As I join them in my head.
 Though the holy prey for me,
  As I cry and as I bleed.
 Ships at sea the moonlight gray,
  As I perch upon my grave.

Details | Free verse | |

A Savage Sea

A Savage sea has summoned me
its white waves beckon and call
for those wild winds with their morbid tunes
have become one with the Loreli's song.

Embraced by the waves and the rising tide
I fight their caresses for naught

shall I see the shore.

The sea has summoned me.

Details | Elegy | |


"There they go,"
Aboard the Good Ship
Across the oceans
Toward the edge
Of the sea
With the setting sun
From here to there
In a strait betwixt two
A reluctant release
As we mourn...
Others cheer,
The boat whistles
Parting the waters
Just beyond the horizon
From a wrinkle in time
And limited isles
To an everlasting dawn
A spacious place
And a welcome welcome,
"Here they come."

In Memory of Nanna Joe

Details | I do not know? | |


We are each like snowflakes that have fallen from the sky, each one has fallen at 
different times and none are just alike... they are all as unique and special in thier own

As snowflake each falls to the ground some may stay for a while, some evaporate in 
the wake of the morning sun. 

Some snowflakes may get washed away by rain…some never even make it to the ground. 
Each one of us are engulfed by what seems to be an endless journey here on earth 
that will some someday, eventually will lead us all back home. No not one of us are alike, 
each as different as those snowflakes that fall from the sky. 

For just like the snowflakes that are here on earth for a short time? We too will have a 
final day here on earth very soon. 

When Angels will descend down from the heavens above and come to take us each back 
home.For just like those snowflakes that fell to the  ground and return to the sky that no one 
ever sees.

You too will be taken up to the Pearly White Gates by the Angels with their 
beautiful white gossamer wings... they will then rap you up in a purple robe...and place 
upon your head a gold crown to wear. 

Then the stars in the sky above will start to dance and dazzle… for those to see 
who were left behind on earth…and trumpets will sound as the Angles will 
sing songs of joy and great praise! They will all rejoice with cries of rapture that you 
have return home to stay! 

But up there in heaven there was no gold, silver or diamond paved roads for you to walk 
upon only the soft clouds from where we all come from… but there was a gentle kiss 
from our Father whom sat above in the heavens on he spoke into 
your ear and gave you a hug... and as he said to you in a soft voice, "Welcome 
my lost snowflake, welcome back home."

Copyright © 2006 Jay Anderson-Taylor

Details | Free verse | |

From Lonesome Shore

Enclosed within a shroud
of misery and hopes blown awry;
Silent and still I stand listening
to a selkies lonesome cry.

''While away your lifetime
wandering woebegone shores.
Midst the changing of the wind,
come to me, cling to me.
---Desert your vacant vessle of dreams fast vanishing.''

''Abandone life,
hear my song,
and join my dreary solitude.'' 

Details | Elegy | |

This Avalanche

Dedicated to Papa

This avalanche I'm trapped in
Has got me hurt and scared
Wishing I were in your arms
Wishing I had been there.
I want to hug you and hold you tight
And never let you go
Papa, please come back to me
I can't live with this feeling I hold.
Why were you taken from me?
Couldn't you have stayed here? 
Had you somehow deserved this?
Do you now cry angel tears?
Do you ever wonder and ask
Why you aren't here with me?
Do you even ever see someone
Who can give you the answers and see
Why this has happened to us
And why its taking so long
To grow up and get over this
So that I can get along?
These words they seem so selfish
Because they really are
But this avalance of heartache is burying me
Pushing me down into the yard. 
I'm drowning in this deep depression
And I don't know how to get out
I want to trust others to help me
But with you I can't live without.
So no one can help me
But only one guy
But that one guy is you
And as I'm writing this, I cry.
I don't want Christmas to make it to Earth
Because that means another day without you
I knew this sounds cliche, Papa,
But I swear it is true.
Life was short when I had you
And it's even shorter now that you're gone
I don't think I can deal anymore
Now that I'm left all alone.

Details | Rhyme | |


You think you’ve got problems
So huge and so great
But then something happens
And you realise its not to late
It puts your problems in perspective
They are minor compared to others
A whole family suddenly wiped out
A sea full of sisters and brothers
The normally serene ocean
The normally peaceful beach
Ferocious sea sucked back in anger
And pounced on those in reach
Throwing its waved high
Hauling its water ahead
A path of mass destruction
A sea of loved ones dead
A woman kneels and weeps
A loved one floating by
The people united in their grief 
A sea of desolation they cry
The ocean is their trade
The ocean was their friend
Their worst enemy it became
With such a tragic end

Details | Narrative | |

The Pillar

Currents of chaos
Battering battering my fragile ports
Steady flow of tidal constance
Fluid life and yet 
I drown silently
A water sogged pillar
I steady the pier and hold true
Against the undercurrents and crashing waves
Briney depths beckon and call
Shifting drifting sandy murk
Dances at my feet
Upturned, my face to the sun
But that is not my place
Shadowy cool caressing fingers
Urge me downward
For the waves are my lullaby and 
They call me home

Details | Ballad | |

The Ship

startled to sudden wakefulness
by the sudden lurch of the ship,
fear rose in my soul
cold, damp hull next to my berth,
I'd give 10 years of my life
to have my feet on solid earth

dark, quiet inboard
only the low pitched groans of metal
pounded by an angry, restless sea

Eyes open half way, not quite sure where I am-

riveted steel plates before my eyes,
drops of sea dew condense inside,
sudden terror, as my mind awakes-
no sound aboard- but the 
rhythmatic pounding of heavy seas

engines dead!  no motor sound-
have we once too often-
dared the fates?
what's going on? what and why?
and where, oh God, are my mates?

I jerked out of bed,
as the deck dances beneath my feet- 
what's happening? is this real? 
will death, I once more, defeat?

to the hall I stagger...
as my world shudders about me...
no lights, no sound, and fading hope...
but the sound of ever maddening waves...
eager to crush this insolent ship,
so insolent as to invade its realm
so foolish to taunt nature
with no one now at its helm

each cabin, in rising panic,
I searched in rising gloom,
to find nothing to comfort me,
each but an empty room...

fear increasing with-
each crushed hope,
each screaming smash of wave
am I alone, am I dreaming?
or against me, the sea is scheming?

fought my way up to the rolling deck,
pain swelling in my now sprained neck-
the sea grew ever more threatening and awesome,
I felt left alone to face my fate
my outcome no longer doubtful,
I wouldn't have long to wait...

at a topside cabin,
I peeked outside,
saw mighty wind and wave-
an angry earth it was tonight
no way for me to save...

dark night and
no one about-
I cursed, I cried,
I screamed, I did shout...

abandoned? left to die?
or in a murderous dream-
did I make 32 die?
toss their bodies overboard?
feed the sea,
its requested hoard?

panic is panic,
and panic this was-
demon or victim?
which was I,
did I kill?  will I die?

I retreated downdeck,
a broken man,
either way I lose-
the comfort of strong steel-
no more- it would'a been
something that I could use

Details | Blank verse | |

Last Day Out To Sea

Fly those colors high
For we will not live tonight
Today is the last day of your life,
So kiss the sea goodbye,
The beast has come to claim its toll,
It will not leave without us,
All we can have is trust
In this old boat,
Our only hope is that it will stay afloat...

Details | Ballad | |


It is so tempting to drink from the barrel of lead 
The contents would go straight to my head 
I will forever sleep in a dream no one can conceive 
And all the pain I feel will surely leave! 

Forever immortalized in a youthful state 
My body will grow cold, but be spared from an aged fate
I still feel like I am 100 years old 
My thirst drives me to drop my hand and fold 

I could never count the death of the tears that have fallen for you 
An ocean was created for you to go to 
I look at this lonely sea of sadness and sorrow!  
You never tried to see this sea of mine so I will not wake up tomorrow 

This world has become to much for me 
Sorry my face is some thing you will never again see! 
Good bye my love and good night 
When I lost your heart, the battle to live lost the fight!

Details | I do not know? | |

Your Other Side

Too much fire, with the lies and your pain
Could bring death, life will slowly wane

Could the truth really quench the flame
Not quite saving your soul from blame

Not even crying could carry you 
Whatever you say, whatever you do 

Whatever love brings, life, your past
Innocence never quite did last

Innocence wading your guilt, the sea
But darkness exists, light is never free

Details | ABC | |


It is me, inside & outside, 
movement of sensuous self.
Time sails through the mind, 
a silken thread unbroken in names. 
If only the death would erase the fear. 
If only the other self meets my roots 
and stir up the inner sap.

Reaching the end, 
you tell me to remember
your name to latch on to memories, 
to collect all the pieces 
of conceptual loss & gains. 
How we were fooling ourselves? 
Nothing is left between us 
to celebrate the dreams.

All the stray thoughts 
could not give us insight
we were dusted off from start 
to finish in our loneliness. 
Once it was a glory 
to watch carnations in our eyes, 
now I am mourning the death of calenders.


Details | Free verse | |

Ashes and Dust

Tossing a corpse
In a shallow grave
And filling it with dirt
Will take it back to dust,
Yet leave fragments behind.

Burning the dead thing
And scattering its ashes
In the wind and waves
Will remove it from the urn.

Details | I do not know? | |

To Those Who Do Not Believe

To those who do not believe

Here we stand, or I stand
alone atop this wicked world
alone i stood atop this strand
my blood-dyed flag unfurled.

Those of you who do not believe
that heroes have the right to bleed
I tell you to cast off the lies that deceive
to the westward future i will lead

I tell you this
so listen close
freedom we will sorely miss
if you fail the ones you love the most

Heroes come and then they go
under stone and buried sea
i stand here alone with martyrs ghosts
just so you will believe

death comes for us all
some will run and some will stay
only heroes will choose to stand so tall
in the coming of the last ancient day

Details | Rhyme | |


Ellie knew her lover was a sailor
But he promised never to leave
Then one day he sailed away
Leaving her alone to grieve
Every day she looked for him
Sitting on the dock at dawn
Hoping he would soon return
And she wouldn't be left alone
She walked along the shore at night
Leaving lonely footprints in the sand
To be washed away when the tide rolled in
And the sea mist covered the land
Years went by while she waited
Growing old and gray
Yet she never gave up the hope
That he'd come back some day
She never knew he'd lost his life
In a terrible storm at sea
The last thing he said that fateful night
Was, "Ellie, please wait for me"
Ellie died of a broken heart
With his picture in her hand
On the back she had written
"God find him if you can"
I think their spirits walk along the shore
Leaving happy footprints in the sand
To be washed away when the tide rolls in
And the sea mist covers the land

Details | Ballad | |


The sea closed over
This is the way
For, the sea claims it's dead
In a world of shades of grey
I looked forward to a world
In which
Words cannot say
The meanings of things
What I felt today
I cannot see sky
For, the sea closed over me
Its' stygian darkness
I cannot breathe
I cannot flee
The sea closed over
This is the way
It claims its' dead
What I felt today

Details | I do not know? | |

Eerie Waves

You seem ill at spirit
Yes I can feel it.

Thorn apart by grieve
Trapped in your own coral reeve.

A mermaid which has lost her way.
Whispers words of worship.
I heard her pray.
In the depth of my soul
In which she lay.

Melancholy tears swept by the merciless tide,
the sadness making all the creatures of the depth hide.

I sung her a lullaby which told her to no longer cry.

I told her weep no more sweet maiden,
You'll be safe in this heaven.
No longer shall your cheeks be stained with tears,
As i will silence and fight your fears.
Swap your disturbing dreams with chains of pearls.
So that your head is no linger in a whirl.

I'll buy you a smile,
I know it will take while,
There is no sense in denial.

She looked up at me
making me see
Two dark pools of eyes which seemed so wise.

Look at my heart which has been thorn Apart,
With promises made from the heart.
My spirit sings no more.
Cast away dying on a darkened shore
Forever banished in old folklore,
My very essence no more.

A piece of drift wood cast away
burned at the stake
Never again to see the light of day.

Just give me one reason,
Before I weaken,
And my hearts stops beating.
Of way i should stop from leaving.

You still have your soul as bright as day
Willing to carry you the way.

Memories long gone rotten.
Ancient knowledge long forgotten.

On this day and in this hour
An end to stories long gone sour.

Details | Free verse | |


That far off ship,
Just crossed over the horizon,
Heading for an unknown shore,
Has left my sight once more,
A destination I will never see,
For this sea's laid claim to me,
My small dinghy fills,
from holes that ever leak,
Will soon take me deep , deep down,
For Poseidan's decreed that I should drown...

The fear of lungs filling up 
with salty sea water,
Of taking my very last breath,
Is in some odd way quite comforting,
For I prefer the fate of death.

Details | Verse | |

marianas trench

as all suns begin to evaporate
through the canals of salt
and tremble under the weight of water
and touch the untouched ground

the zealous trench is draped
with coral stags and seaweed-snakes
and teethed with pores of fire
which cleaves all light

as a strange fish, ill wander forever
the opaque, in search of nothing
in the hearth of origin, of dreams
in realms of jostling rainbows
ill plant my velvet flag
and sleep, in winding sheets

Details | Free verse | |

Doom's Day

                                            One of the most widely spread legends
                                                 Linked directly into sectarianism 
                                                  Coming from  the city of Belfast 
                                                                  Was 390904 
                                                       Which claimed to  be spelled
                                                           Backwards in a mirror 
                                                                   ' No Pope'

Entry For John Heck's Contest

What Movie Am I  ?

Details | Ballad | |


Gold sails of light, 
silently carrying me 
in dead of night 

Soft billow of golden sail, 
takes the lead, 
I hold the rail, 
watching increasing speed 

This dead of night, 
glassy dark blue sea, 
this silence, 
carries me 
Far,with gold sails of light 

I do not steer this vessel, 
I am its only passenger, 
my thoughts I must wrestle 

This glow from golden light, 
from sail, 
through the night, 
carries me , 
far on dark glassy sea 

No ripple disturbed, 
golden sails reflected 
on dark glassy sea, 
I am unpeturbed, 
no fear detected, 
for this ship only carries me 

No stars to guide 
in this dark of night, 
this silent ship does glide 
with gold sails of light 

For ,far ahead 
is an island 
bathed in soft yellow light 
is this where I have been led? 
For I see many gold sails, 
so bright! 

These golden sails of light, 
carry me 
back to the fold, 
for the precious cargo that they hold, 
is my soul 

I step ashore, 
I now know what is is for, 
my body I leave behind, 
a new beginning I find 

This dark glassy sea 
is not for me, 
gold sails of light 
are what makes it right, 
for this is meant to be 

For,in this new land 
the golden sails have spanned, 
carried me here 
For I have no fear 
For I am........ only me 

Gold sails of light 
over dark glassy sea 
Silently carrying me 
to island ,so bright 

Details | I do not know? | |

On The Shores Of An Unnamed Sea

On the shores of an unnamed sea
I profess my hidden honesty
On the coast I recall
The memories of my sunken ship
A hundred lives lost in the name of one
And so I name this body of wasteful water
The sea of disoriented dreams and lost lives

Details | I do not know? | |

Broken Heart

A girl falls with a scream,
How badly she wishes it was a dream.
To wake up wake up without a care,
Anymore pain she cannot bare.
To feel the peace she felt before,
When she speaks she ends up on the floor.
He comes at her with a rage in his eyes,
All she can do is try to hide.
A broken heart that can never heal,
For she always feels the pain he conceals.
At once he grabs her by the throat,
Now all she can do is cry and choke.
The pain grows stronger with every blow,
She's all alone where will she go.
Then all is beautiful and bright,
All this Broken Heart can see is light.
A hand reaches towards her with such ease,
She is home now she can finally breathe.

Details | Ballad | |

The Ship part two

down deck, down deck, on and on-
such an awesome ship it had been-
100,000 tons, or more, I guess-
that it will sink seems such a sin-
this mighty ship afloat-
not much longer, I did know...
and even with her cold steel strength
down she would soon surely go,
to the sea she was nothing...
like a little twig, no task for her to snap....
the sea can always laugh at man-
when he falls into her deadly trap

despair kicked in, and sure
enough- despair was well deserved-
'cause death was facing me that night-
death that I had truely earned-
my soul was going down, way down
forever to be rightfully burned-

yes, it was foolish enough-
to challenge the sea-
and madness to kill the men-
now my poor luck to be the only one-
that's left-
to face a gruesome end

I leaned against a cold
engine room wall
in the deepest bowls of the ship-
I was consigned to what was approaching-
I waited for my end to come-
hoping, asking God, only it be quick...
my concern wrapped around me,
very, very thick...

the water's cascading now, my friend-
it's going down so fast!
eyes turned up in search of God-
I knew my fate was cast...
my Lord, I hope you accept this fool-
however, I'm dying slow-
the sea, it hurts my lungs so bad-
and the pressure is just so-
I'm dying, Lord, I'm dying!
Oh, sh_t, I'm goin' down-
Dear Lord above, around, beneath me-
please accept me as I am- 
a fool, a repented sinner. a victim
and a murderer too-
I'm sure you can take me-
please show me that this is true-

my bones are now at rest-
in this lonely, sunken tomb of steel
whitened, weathered, beaten-
hopefully someday may to be raised-
to my surprise, I find,
below the seas- so many great comrades-
we number in countless billions-
as do those that live upon the earth
and now I understand, too late, perhaps-
just what a human life is worth.

Details | Ballad | |


Trailing souls in its' wake 
Strange luminescence, 
more souls to take 

The flapping of torn sails 
Masts, bleached grey 
Ghostly trails, 
lighting the way 

Fourteen score years, 
circumnavigated seas 
Looking for me... 
Sea smoke... 
Sea mist... 
Tattered sails 
Mournful wails 

In the halflight, 
Masts appear through the sea mist 
A haunting 
For the night 

Vanishing into the gloom 
Looking for a soul 
Strange luminescence 
Deathly grip 
Deathly cold 

Calling me 
Strange glow, 
from the decks below 

Blackened sides, 
burnt too 
You cannot escape 
Looking for me... 
Looking for you... 

Details | I do not know? | |

A Sip Of Water Is All She Needs

A sip of water is all she needs
To flourish
But I’m giving her the ocean
Little do I know
Salt kills
Little do I care
She’s ill

Details | Ballad | |



When you stopped, 
being you 
My gentle world, 
fell through 

Lost on a sea, 
of my own making 
What you meant to me 

When you stopped, 
being you 
Day and night, 
meant nothing 
My plight 

without a sail 
It cannot be, 
lost on a lonely sea 

When you stopped, 
being you 
My gentle world, 
fell through 

I looked for you today, 
you have gone 
You cannot stay 

When you stopped, 
being you 
My gentle world, 
lost too 

It is only me, 
Day and night 
On a desolate sea 

When you stopped, 
being you 
My gentle world, 
fell through 

Time cannot 
always heal 
the days you feel 
When you stopped, 
being you 

Details | I do not know? | |

Death of the Lochness Monster

I once thought I could make it home
Since I laid rope to walk upon.
It rose up high and took my life
And ripped my bowels like a knife.
The groping talons cut my throat
And threw my heart into a boat.
With nothing left but scattered seeds
Each bloodied leg fell in the weeds.
The gaping wound held ragged shape
Rich layered canvas formed a cape.
Thick fluids spread upon my face
Successively close breathing space.
Each tentacle lay down the brush
All sails lay down to end my rush.
I saw a light and I could climb 
They led and sang our monster rhyme.