Best Clipper Ship Poems
My father and I stood outside the old farmhouse in which I was raised and he still lived.
The black sheep had moved back in temporarily until I found a "handyman special "house to
work on and live in. It was about nine thirty pm. and really quite peaceful standing out there
with him. That felt good because if there ever was anything between him and I , it surely
wasn't peace.
It was quite dark as only the hairline of the moon's robust face could be seen bobbing in
and out of a sea sparkling with star milk; which is what my siblings and I called it from our
perch on that mountain in Vermont. That blonde hairline was occasionally being hidden by
clipper ship clouds seeming to be sailing back in search of the harbor from whence the moon
had shoved off.
I could hear the chorus of crickets fading into background noise as the frogs filled the air
with the rising stacatto of their incessant peeping.
My Father's voice broke the spell while he was taking it all in and said," I wonder where
the peepers all went." What?", I asked. "You know , the frogs ..used to be you could
hear 'em peeping all over the place at night like this. You just don't hear 'em any more.
Wonder what happened to 'em." He was quite surprised when I told him they were still alive
and well and just as noisy as usual.
That's the first time we realized the "old man" was losing his hearing. Soon afterwards ,
he got himself a hearing aid and the peepers came back for him. He was glad about that.
Those little nature things made him very happy. I enjoyed that about him.
Categories:
clipper ship, family, life, nature
Form:
Free verse
Clipper Ships
My mother; she wasn’t there any more
Burned away in chemo radiology
Therapy for the incurable
As she lingered for a year
Lobotomized by cancer
But in her dreams she sailed her clipper ships
Sailed away on the mighty Cutty Sark
Indomitable spirit she was
Swayed by the poetry of canvas sails
A sea gull riding to the rigging
Until the coma took her
And us to a three-day hell
As we patiently watched her
Slowly inexorably fade away
Every last breath counted in longer minutes
But she stood bare foot on the deck
The salt washed planking oak wind swept
Beneath the great white wings blown the prow
Her heart pushed aboard the clipper ship
She sailed the proud sea the pride of her fleet
And every last breath in longer and longer minutes
She reached at last the very last
No goodbye, no farewell, just a soft emptying sigh
As at last; she escaped
Leaving us alone in the deathly silent room
Gone
Aye my lads ! She’s a fine grand ship
My mother said
My brothers and I stood gawping on the dock
The finest clipper of the fleet the mighty Cutty Sark
The great masts from which to hang your dreams
And ride the plumes of briny waves
She’s a thousand books of sailor’s tales
With rigging made from the strings of Neptune’s harp
She can sail from one edge of eternity to the next
In crematorium puffs of smoke
And now just ash
White wing gull she rides the slipstream still
Still; she sails her clipper ships
While on holiday in St Austell on the Cornwall coast of England, we saw a great sail ship
cutting through the rough seas. I remember my Mothers eyes were shinning and streaming,
her face a picture of rapture. Later that year she took us all to see The Cutty Sark. A
grand old Clipper dry docked at Greenwich London. I have never seen anyone so enthralled
and enraptured as she was, as we all stood on the deck. From then on paintings and models
of great sail ships frequented every wall and corner of our home. Paintings and photo's of
The Cutty Sark can be found on Google. Take a look sometime if you like, and you'll see
why she fell in love.
Categories:
clipper ship, mothersea, sea,
Form:
Free verse
The cold blue waves move gently with the surf
The azure ocean is deep like the soul
The wind murmurs above the ocean
Whistling in gaps of granite rocks it causes commotion
Further north green sea waves
Are in insipid correlation with expressive blue
Of a nearby glacier
But here water is warmer
Like the heart of the Earth
As sunset slowly turns sky
From blue to gold and violet
The clipper ship sails forward with the wind
The beacon shines like the second moon
Guiding the vessels around sharp rocks
Jutting out to sea
Under the water coral reef dazzles with beauty
The mist of stars
Suddenly surrounds the ship
The mist is full of color and light
Like crystals in kaleidoscope to the eye they are delight
The mist is magic
Writing the very laws of abstract
As deep as the soul
It makes the ship fly
As ship sails through the clouds
The phoenix appears on a left of the bow
The dragon on the right
Both guide the vessel on its flight
Categories:
clipper ship, adventure,
Form:
Free verse
I pull my shirt off
to check for the bulls eye
Today it’s there
so I’ll run and hide
but to no avail
I’m the pawn in your diabolical tale
premeditated and calculated
guess I missed the cookie crumb trail
no clues are friendship was going stale
you stabbed me in the back
knowing I'm emotionally frail
You blind sided me
and so likely is the story
that it’s just my luck
Now I’m always your excuse
when your talking about why you can’t drink it up
I hope you chock on those lies you poser
You’ll never help people
your an emotional bulldozer
Maybe one day you’ll suffer
from real emotional ills
Believe when I tell you
It Kills
Everyday I take a handful of pills
even then their is no guarantee
There's are days when negativity
and overwhelming pressures
consume my very being
and the crazy thing is the seeing
because it’s believing
witnessing me in a blank stare
I’m conscious,
but no one’s there
Just - My - Stare
Inside
I’m busy
with my clipper ship
I’ve floated upon your hurricane
and every little happy moment we ever had
has crying stinging pellets of mad
Categories:
clipper ship, confusion, depression, friendship, introspection,
Form:
Prose Poetry
She launched into sea in 1852,
And was build by Donald McKay.
She sailed from Honolulu, Hawaii
To New York in a whopping 82 days.
She set the fastest speed ever recorded,
On her second leg voyage for a sailing ship.
She logged in at 22 knots/25 mph,
Over a 24 hour, 400 mile trip.
She loved to sail the open ocean,
Sailing away with the breeze.
She was a Bostonian Clipper Ship,
Named the Sovereign of the seas.
Categories:
clipper ship, history, sea
Form:
Quatrain
in silks and satin,? ?she coms to me
fire in her hair?; ?moon in her eyes
perfumed neck,? ?and wrists,? ?and thighs
and soft sighs fill the shadows
when she shakes loose her tresses
and her pastel,? ?pink kimono
flutters to the floor
there is hunger in her kisses
her shoulders taste like apple wine
she whispers as sweetly as angels sing
caresses as gently as a butterfly wing
music humming in my fingers
magic strikes,? ?like the first flash
of lightning in a storm
she moves like waves upon the sea.
as does a clipper ship ?,? ?i ride the swell
slient thunder about us roars
flesh forgotten as spirit soars
then,? ?in the after tempest calm
one quick promise?; ?and she is gone
I know she'll come...? ?again
Categories:
clipper ship, passion, romance
Form:
Free verse
The gentle breezes danced
On the tips of the harbor waves
As I watched the village
Filled with huts fade away
On the Malaysian shoreline
All of the fisherman
In their long boats followed
Until all that was left
Was the syncopated beating
Of oars striking the sea
In tempo to some old chant
That I had heard them sing
Many, many times before
It’s been over thirty years
Since I have seen Malaysia
And the sun burnt faces
Of the children playing
On the white sandy beaches
But when the summer sun
Beats hot over the land
Casting long, long shadows
Into the deep green forest trees
I can still feel Malaysia
Rippling over me
Like a cool sea breeze
Carrying the memories
Of a young man
Standing on the bow
Of an old clipper ship
Watching village huts fade
Along a Malaysian shoreline
Categories:
clipper ship, places, old, old,
Form:
Prose Poetry
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Once upon
an ocean there
was Mark, who
dreamed of befriending a shark.
One night just for a jolly lark, he swam deep
into the dark. So, on his watery trek he did embark
In a sunken clipper ship dwelt Clark. Searching for food in a sea
that seemed so cold, empty and very stark. Cold and hungry, Clark the
great white hungry and a little bit grumpy shark met tiered wet and
fatigued Mark. Who in the end he had to remark: that
Clark’s bite was worse
than his
bark
By Robb A. Kopp
All Rights Reserved © MMX
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Categories:
clipper ship, adventure, allegory, animals, sea,
Form:
Concrete
A clipper ship for my birthday please.
I shall enjoy the spray of the ocean breeze.
I may groan and snarl and cough and wheeze.
It would be wonderful, so please do not tease.
Just a second, I need some space to sneeze.
Want to travel with me beyond these trees?
I do not mean to be an arrogant sleaze
But a clipper ship for my birthday please!
Categories:
clipper ship, 3rd grade, 4th grade,
Form:
Monorhyme
She came up from the deepest depths of the Indian Sea.
Feeling summoned by a spirit that was wild, zany and free.
A clipper ship was on the top of the waves, but she let it be.
Trying to discern who had called her from deep in the Sea.
What is happening asked a sea creature, who scampered toward her.
Not sure, she replied, but someone has a heart that is incredibly pure.
I sensed them on that ship, so I decided not to attack or capsize it.
If the crew had known this whale was there, they would have had a fit.
Categories:
clipper ship, 3rd grade, 4th grade,
Form:
Rhyme
Early Earth thaw
First gasp of breath
Heaves its snow chest
Like a blanket pulled back
Arches its cadaverous humps
A surfacing serpent
Along the street curbs
Slithers to the drains
Snakes away through the pipes
Spills over the dams
Swims in the rivers
Toils to seas
Butterflies as rain
Tombstone wave
Ten thousand miles away
Taps the cedar of a clipper ship
Once a snowflake
In this winter land
Marking a grave
In a frozen drift
Outside my kitchen window.
Categories:
clipper ship, birth, earth, freedom, journey,
Form:
Free verse
Raven has the clipper ship blues
As her captain turns toward the cape
Leaving her once again in the family way
Her parents forgave her one bairn. Will they forgive two?
At least I had this week, she says to herself.
It is enough, he is more than enough.
Goodbye my love, she tells his ship
He has gone on to new adventures.
Will she be ostracized, bullied, belittled?
Maybe she could trick John Dunn into marrying her.
He is a simple man, but would never beat her.
She begins to plot her plight and the future.
Categories:
clipper ship, woman,
Form:
Narrative
sailed into the pirate moon, is what we did,
South of the Indies with that whipper boy kid.
our clipper ship was bound toward Jamaica now
We would get there somehow, none of us knew how
the moon was frightening, the clouds were disappearing fast.
The only sounds were snoring, I lay down beside the mast.
An ominous night, frightening, swallowed up by this moon.
I heartily prayed that I might be shakened awake soon.
Categories:
clipper ship, fantasy,
Form:
Rhyme
I inherited a worn out clipper which made me mad.
For the rest of the cousins got riches, big and bad.
One got emeralds, another got diamond rings.
I got a clipper ship, without the pirate loot of kings.
Give it a whirl around the cape, my faerie godfather said.
He is a crazy old coot, eccentric, not quite right in the head.
Now what do you think, isn’t this a bit of fun now honey?
It surely was! My clipper ship was magic, and manifested money!
Categories:
clipper ship, imagination,
Form:
Rhyme
she waits for her lover
watching every sailor as they disembark
from the clipper ship she knows best
recognizing his curly hair she lights up
Algeciras Bay, their sweet spot
Categories:
clipper ship, love,
Form:
Free verse