Best Abaft Poems

* For Mary Kathleen Lessard Caithness *

                              ~

cast tie-lines to shadowy depths above
   ...

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I've courted luck, in countless ways
      Against the ragged judgments and self-umbrage
         I still draw breath, and the mirror has been charitable
   Most I meet deem me forty, (I don't...

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Behind those hidden marked wrists
Are lies, skepticism and fears
Behind those calloused, clenched fists
Is a cauldron of uncontrollable tears.

Behind those evident scars
Is a constant cycle of sorrows
An imaginary fiend that mars
A twinge that only herself knows.

Behind those unappealing blotches
Are griefs, worries and insecurities
Inflictive pain worth a...

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Down the dreamed aisle
  comes the bliss of your sight
Cord of your life
  sinew of your might.
Abaft the unending trek
  comes the longed outset
A more colorful kismet
  under the glorified sunset.

Wishful thinking 
  ceases the awakening
With thine caring
  adoration...

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clouds as fluffy as the whistling bliss
encircling in the sky, eyes fonder and kiss

abaft the hidden pillows of lace
brightness over hays above Thy grace...

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The ship was atoss on the ungallant sea
The swells took a toll as the hull strained and cracked
It would be fair time afore it sought the lee
With the slams and the pitching the ship could be wracked.

The foc'sle went down, the stern rose on high
And...

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One day our ship will port in a place of peace and wonder.
Abaft facing the wind and sails at rest.
Limp from its journey, tired and sunder. The bolt rope holding it together.
pushing stead course toward its mark breaking every crest.
awaiting to reach its voyage end,...

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All is calm, all is at rest where once a storm had brew. No spray of mist, no violent torrent, nor upheaval of swelling wave to creek timbers or wash men over.

There was a calmness but once before it, where I felt your warmth bring...

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" Rime of the Ridiculous Mariner "

{warbled to the Merry Tune: Jingle Bells!}

Jingle Bells & Flyin' Hulls
All sheets in so tight~
Yikes Ahoy! There's the ploy!
Sail right through this night!

Run downwind beat to weather
fall off as ye wish~
Set your mizzen up yer main
tops'ls catch all flyin'...

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The wind beneath my wings was a fart
And excuse me is all I could say;
Flying here where worlds apart
As the good folk looked on in dismay.

For they had expected much more,
Loftier goals had been set for me;
But in the end where meant to soar,
I'm about...

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Enter to come
Suffer into
So I appeared
Soused in my tripes
A semblance cast
School way in halls
Visage of black
Takes two steps to
I ebb trail back
Forthwith I flashed
In bathroom stalls
Walketh me them
Toward the hind abaft
Descryed my eyes
Two pairs of four
In each latrine
Afoot we passed
Every lot of door

Then in a...

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We've sought our sextant, fair and free,
          Thus bound with dreams, this starlit sea -
               Should other sentience thrive, perchance,
  ...

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We've sought our sextant, fair and free,
          Thus bound with dreams, this starlit sea -
               Should other sentience thrive, perchance,
  ...

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We fly forever up high
In our own blue sky
Thru clouds, past rain, moon abaft...

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Trailing naked toes, hat low peaked
fingers laced abaft head and sun,
white-water gently threading through
the webbed keel of one foot.

The sky is blasting blue,
splotching louder blobs of cobalt
around a midday solar blaze.
Even the river billows,
heaps uplifted ripples into crests.

An old man rests
his skiff rolling rhythmically
to a...

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