Best Freighter Poems
An alligator on a floating freighter
Ate the Captain and the navigator,
He also ate the crew
In a meaty stew,
In a feast which included the waiter.
Took a cruise down a river of booze.
Pissed my pants and filled my shoes.
Now it's time to clean it up.
Take a shower and drink a cup.
The fever caused my nerves to shake.
I had to leave her, it just didn't take.
That restless feeling wouldn't rest.
So now I hope it's for the best.
The wheels are rolling slow and steady.
I turned left and then saw Betty.
Drove a ways and heard this plinking.
Turn signal stuck and still was blinking.
I took the hint and headed south.
Now I look down in the mouth.
Jumped a freighter for the coast.
Sent my regards back in the post.
Now I'm sittin' on the pier.
Wonderin' where to go from here.
Borrowed a boat without the keys.
It's dangerous doing what you please.
Gas ran out and I hit a reef.
Sprung a leak, nothing but grief.
I bailed out as it was sinking.
That's the way it goes with mindless thinking.
Awoken at 3:30 a.m.
On Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel
By a freighter blowing its foghorn
Like a calf half separated
From its mother
Bellowing out there somewhere
Lost and meandering
In the thick fog
Stunned by the freezing May water.
Up from bed
Out to the balcony
I felt for the iron side of the passing freighter
Only to find
The sticky wool of lamb
Clutched to the fist of my hand.
Every father has this instinct.
Every mother becomes helpless.
The baying fades away over 45 minutes
Its cry shrinking through the shroud of cloud
Over the Great Lakes
Under the Mighty Mac
On to Wisconsin perhaps
The story like all stories always unfinished…
I go back to bed and lie wide awake.
When the well-rested rooster woke up at noon, he found himself in the lap
of a gorgeous boy and he was telling his mom with urgency,
"I want this rooster, he can keep the lonely and moody parrot company!"
And staring at him," It's a rooster, not a pet!" she exclaimed.
Mothers always try to please their kids, and sometimes they really spoil them,
not according to their customs and beliefs, controversially fathers are stricter than them;
"I'll take care of him and soon he'll be living in our ranch home" he promised...
and continuing,"From now on, his name will be Harbor: the lovely place where I found him!"
The gentle boy kept his promise and Harbor became part of the family,
and the talkative parrot taught him to say the exact words he said;
and months went by, but nobody knew that he could speak so humanly,
and how did they find out that Harbor was smarter than an ordinary bird?
They overheard him in a challenging conversation about finding a perfect mate,
in the shortest time and the shrewd parrot thought he surely would have been the winner,
but to his surprise, Harbor used his accumulated wisdom and searched the nearby farm,
where chicks were bred and then put in perforated carboard crates on a freighter.
Harbor looked around and didn't really like any of the chicks he saw,
and was he about to give up on his search? Suddenly not! He trotted past the noisy farm,
and to his bewilderment, he spotted a young chicken on the grass below...
and gallantly approached her, and with a chat started a romantic affair by keeping her warm.
Harbor and the young chick clicked and they quickly were talking about marriage,
lots of baby chicks to feed: the ultimate dream of two domesticated birds;
at first, the upset boy wasn't too happy about their agreement, and exploded in rage,
but realizing what was best for Harbor, he finally gave him his blessings.
On the same farm the newly-wed live, and have big plans for a large family;
one more thing, if curious folks decide to visit them anytime soon, they need a reservation.
They will show them around with their fowl hospitality, but rule out temptation;
none of them will end up on their plates for the next Holidays or any other special festivity!
More than fifty ships go through the Suez Canal on any day.
However, a very large freighter has blocked the passageway.
The ship called the "Ever Given" comes from a company in Taiwan.
Unsuccessful efforts to move the vessel have been going on.
Tugboats and personnel are trying to get the big ship free.
Meanwhile, hundreds of other craft have been stalled on the sea.
This incident is having a negative impact on the world economy.
From a story found in the Los Angeles Times.
Below this dome
The earthy place
Lies a stone lighthouse
Sturdy standing in place
Across the waters it does face
Brought to birth at 1810
She’s been there for years
As fishermen left their piers
Guiding ships and boats
Safety is what she promotes
During the war of 1812
British war ship came town
Bringing to many a frown
They plundered and buried many New England
Vessels
Here in this Scituate town that nestles
The lighthouse keeper sent out a shot
From the cannon with loud drama on the spot
The angered British captain then departed
Back home he had charted
Later in years in need of repairs
And towns peoples sneers
To the crumbling of stairs
In 1855 the lighthouse received a Fresnel lens
And then
Minot’s ledge light was lighted on November 15.1860
Situate light was changed in a jiffy
The lights went black
And so the growth of sea wrack
Then in the government hauled
In 1924 an automatic light was installed
No lighthouse keeper was needed
And so it proceeded
Throughout the plans
The light changed hands
And at times lay their abandon
In 1956 an Italian freighter ran aground
Laying next to the lighthouse mound
In 1994 the lighthouse was brought back
Once more
A part of the historic society for all to adore
Where it remains lit on Situate shores
He walks around with a secret untold
Its taken his peace, and life begins to unfold.
No one understands the pain he has to bare.
Now everything tastes different, even the air.
Life is now empty stares from the corners of a prison cell.
Like seeing a glimpse of light, from the bottom of a well.
Walking amongst the living, as though he were dead.
He won't give it up, because on his soul they will tread.
They who forget are one day destined to remember.
Seeing life as a fire, and he is the fading ember.
Taking in the world, seeing why were not coincided.
Once subtracted, and nothing left to be divided.
A lifetime coming down to its lowest common denominator.
Buying a one-way train ticket, on a wooden box freighter.
Telling himself everything will be fine and he'll once again shine.
He's said that ever since his test came back, with a positive sign.
Watching little crabs scuttle out of holes building fences of round wet sand bricks.
A long necked long legged white crested round eyed sentinel watches a line of pelicans sliding on wind currents
caused by condos.
The sound of constant traffic on this fish pier of a highway that used to be a railroad before a hurricane gave it last rites
Just sitting in the shade of red and ragged trees on a foldup chair that almost sits in sand looking out at different pastel
shades of green, blue, sparkled aquamarine water. Here and there they're wading ankle deep with children splashing
madly in their rushing joy of life.
further out are fishing boats testing secret holes at least to them and farther still a freighter stubbornly dawdles
northward
White clouds follow each other up towards the glades offering shade to sun blackened alligators who want no part of it
laying on the banks of flooded grass
swept in uniformity by sweet fresh water, and everywhere there is life laidback and free as only crackers know. Living
in the moment and sleepy eyed readiness of sudden change.
In 1947 in the Straits of Malacca near Indonesia
An old Dutch freighter the SS Ourang Medan
Sent a message out that the whole crew was dead
With the last message from the operator being, “I die”
An all-out effort was made to find the ship
And when it was found no-one responded from aboard
They were able to get on board by rope
What they found deepened the mystery
Because the whole crew were indeed dead
And in death they all had a look of terror on their faces
Suddenly smoke was seen from the engine room
The rescue crew had to quickly leave the ship
And it blew up sinking quickly beneath the waves
Taking the mystery of what had happened with it
Was it ghosts or aliens that killed them all?
Or was it a cover up of transporting nerve gas
No records about whether this was true are available
The dead crew and the destroyed ship still remains a mystery.
© Paul Warren Poetry
Inwards
Admiral Nukhimov lies in the usual position, on her side, on the seabed with sixty four bodies still aboard. Hit by a freighter Pyotr Vasev making a disaster. Two divers died while retrieving bodies from the wreck.
Eighteen people standing upright behind a glass screen, led out one at a time by a diver, giving him memories he’ll never forget, awful. We don’t replace the dead with the living, leave them there. A 1986 tragedy.
Sixty year old ship, second time she sunk! Used in Operation Hannibal with the Gustloff, another German liner. Both doomed. One torpedoed, one hit mines. Salvaged by Russia and rebuilt, forty years of service.
Old ship lasted so long, about to be scrapped but took four hundred and twenty three souls with her. Another tragedy at sea, a fine ship gone.
She had me restored to my mummy
After disappearing like a needle
And made me quit acting dummy
And worshipping a TV Idol.
Clearly My social mother
Also, on merit Biological
Quieting a hostile Brother
Increasingly rashly illogical …
A woman who could’ve given birth
To such as I
And my freighter ship berth,
Where it can be picked with the eye;
Now, I have grown too fast
For her assured comfort
And have long shadows cast:
A Fine Escaping Effort …
No longer a moth
That expires on palms inhuman
A steady rapid growth
Quicker than that of a human.
And now too I don’t courtesies keep
For a woman twice my age …
Over her in the streets leap
While she tries every wedge.
When the Isle of Man Master Baitor
Got a gig on an Irish freighter
To Scotland they sailed
Until they were hailed
When seamen splashed an aviator
Son Scottie drives a Porsche, had a broken antennae
Took it to the shop, must wait for a part from Germany
Six weels later
Arrived by freighter
Wrong part... bottom line, buy a Hyundai
When the wind catches the sails at night
And the masts protest with screeching,
Sailors say the ghosts are causing a fright
From deck to crow’s nest beseeching.
The captain already gone below the deck
To spend an evening with a book relaxing,
Is never summoned out of great respect
To return to the helm, his day was taxing.
By dawn the night noises are commonplace
Especially when the sea is a soothing calm,
As the sailors pick up their workday pace
Accompanied by a sea-shanty or a song.
In a week or so the port comes into view,
The crew eagerly plans spending time ashore
To discover in this exotic place what’s new,
Freight unloaded, it is time for sailing lore.
The ship Wreck
A sparkle, the freighter exploded and up in the air I flew. Looking down the ship
had vanished in the glitter of sunlight. Into the sea I fell, bubbles and angst,
but I saw above me a raft. The sea, calm, always is, it’s the wind that screams
in defeat as it can’t bend the sea to its will; and shallow land that tries to stop
its progress, the freedom to be itself. Night, around me danced the women
I had loved. I drank their nectar and became the strongest man on earth.
My hearing, acute, when tons of iron hit the bottom of the sea I heard screams
of suffering steel and humanity, in a common voice. I willed sea to become terra
firma, silky sand; I dragged the raft behind me like a sledge, heading for the red
mountain where sun never sets because it has no sea to cool into.
Women had disappeared into fluffy clouds and useless heavenly angels, without
their sustenance I lost my potency, and the sea flooded the land. When my raft
drifted into Sidney harbour it was New Year’s Eve, fairy light committed suicide
by jumping into dark, shark infested water. The scream of broken steel and man
never stopped ringing in my ears.