Home » Poems » sara Etgen-Baker » DAD'S EMPTY BOAT-Villanelle Poetry Contest

Notes About The Poem

Picture of my dad and brothers heading to nearby Lake Lavon to go fishing. My dad had this old flat bottom boat but no boat trailer. So he hoisted his boat on top of his '51 pickup truck, tied it down, and then off to the lake they went.

Poem written for and submitted to “Villanelle” Poetry Contest, Joseph May, sponsor, October 5, 2025.

DAD'S EMPTY BOAT-Villanelle Poetry Contest

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The boat still waits where water meets the shore,  
its hull a ghost of varnish, cracked and thin.  
Dad’s empty boat rides the waves no more.  

Motor sits idle—no strong hands the throttle to pull
at dawn’s first blush or dusk’s slow-settling din.  
The boat still waits where water meets the shore.  

I trace the name he carved with patient score:  
Ninnie Poo—paint now like weathered skin.  
Dad’s empty boat rides the waves no more.  

The pines still lean as if they’re listening for  
his whistled tune, the hook’s sharp plink within.  
The boat still waits where water meets the shore.  

The perch still school where cattails root and sprawl,  
untroubled now by his net or his custom-made jig-spin.   
Dad’s empty boat rides the waves no more.  

The lake holds silence, calm and still with languor. 
Hushed wooden dock moans, wondering where Dad has been.
The boat still waits where water meets the shore.  

Dad’s empty boat rides the waves no more.

12th gradeboatdadfathervillanelle

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