Best Atoll Poems
Barren atoll of the beached, stranded soul
Jilted psyche cornered on dark, rocky knoll
Wavering compass points to ever drifting pole
Listless anchor in choppy waters does troll
Tumultuous portents all fleeting hopes parole
Overcast skies, tomorrow's outlook even more droll
Boisterous waves of anguish crash on lifeless shoal
Brackish foam of revulsion o'er vexed mind does roll
Briny mist, dense fog o'er searching spirit does scroll
Tempest of sorrow blows increasing bleak toll
The deafening thunder my quivering nerves patrol
Torrents of despair my darker instincts do cajole
Weary sojourner paying the dues toilsome waves dole
Together with addled conscience on desolate strand stroll
crystal white sand shines
sun clear aqua encircles
lush palms wave greenly
Written: 26 September 2018
for tropical haiku contest
Dogged In the pursuit of truth
Science writes text with bone dead words
Worse parched than extra dry vermouth
Oft as tasty as rancid curds.
Keeping terms tight as verbal shields
Description is the task of prose,
The draft horse of the science fields,
That ploughs grounds where ignorance grows.
It plants the seeds of truth in rows
Which may produce some bitter yields.
I seek to learn what is real
But much prefer what I can feel.
The sun, I read, moves in ellipse
Joining earth and moon in eclipse.
Dry equations scribe orbits hips
But lack the power of poets’ lips.
I feel things of meaning to me
In robust words of poetry.
Free of parallax’ precision
Of syzygy and equation.
The sun plunges to nightly swim
Bathing deep in a crimson sea
Fringed by cumulous atoll rim
As starry friends gaze silently
Watching through the dark veil of night
Until sun splashes up the dawn
Raising up night’s curtain to light
As friends fade out without a yawn.
Interviewer:
What is the original name for your island chain now called Bikini?
What happened to it?
What has it become here and now?
What is your future?
Bikini Atoll:
Well where do I begin?
We have been assaulted from the very beginning.
The name for the island is 'Pikinni',
meaning a "flat surface of coconuts".
German colonials corrupted this to the offensive name 'Bikini'.
Less than 200 people lived here originally.
Perhaps because we were so few to matter, and so isolated,
our beautiful island was chosen as the site for
multiple nuclear bomb tests,
including the mighty 'Bravo' which was 1000 times
more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,
The Japanese name of which means 'wide island' .
Our beautiful island was destroyed, all but obliterated.
We cannot go back there for countless generations to come
because the dangerous radiation lingers long and fades so slowly.
We tried to go back once, it looked so lovely
as the coconuts gathered again, on the clean atoll beaches
but the hidden radiation made us sick, and we had to leave.
My people of Pikinni want to return to their homeland,
but their hope is frustrated with despair.
The price my people paid is immeasurable and never ending.
Here is their lament:
Why choose Pikinni to blow up with your bombs?
What did we ever do to you?
All we wanted was to live in peace
in paradise here on our
lovely island atoll far away from it all.
Instead you blew us up, left your lingering scourge
of radiation, hidden away and deadly.
While our island has recovered its beauty
and externally became
paradise on earth once again, it is forever unlivable.
Go to hell and stay there forever for
what you have done to Pikinni
and its refugees living in foreign
lands unable to return!
The river of our relentless tears lies collected
within the green coconuts strewn
on the sands of Pikinni atoll,
on our 'flat surface of coconuts',
on our home
on our one and only land.
~ Our Coral Atoll ~
Like incense fills the valves of the chambers of my soul.
Love for life, like a gentle river, totally flooded me.
Once you came and remained, my sole bright, coral love atoll.
Everlastingly gleaming in God's sunlight and moonlight,
Ever lifting me to new insights,as a stunning velvet blue butterfly,
Resting on our quilt, on this siver, moon-blessed night
Your love, your hands, your deep Mediterranean eyes,gleaming.
As that eternal instant we met in our cafe, divine kismet!
My most precious darling, man, our love forever flowering?
11/29/2024