Best Hatches Poems
The Captain bellowed out the order,
soon after the midnight bell;
He said, "batten down the hatches boys,
we're in for a night a hell.
Seems storm force winds were brewin,
a Nor-easter in all it's might;
Sweeping down hard from Labrador,
with no shelter in plain sight.
The Deckies scrambled with precision,
and gave each dog an extra heave;
And never waivered from their duties,
amidst the pounding seas.
The water seeped in where ere it could,
and the cookie stored the mess away;
We all silently knew one truth,
there be no last meal this day.
The skipper yelled, "Hard into er",
as the wheelsman yanked the helm around;
The Mate watched into the blackness,
so no rogue wave would bring us down.
She blew herself out by mornin,
and ragin seas became gentle rolls;
And we silently gave thanks at breakfast,
for we never lost one soul.
Categories:
hatches, adventure, fear,
Form:
Ballad
McGee’s Tall Tale
I first saw McGee with his back facing me
sitting in the Pub with a pint
When Finn, asked him "Tell us a Tale"
So, he stood up and said "I just might"
His face looked grim, as I studied him
and his eyes were fixed and glistened
"Boys, This will blow your moorings away,
with a tale, if you just, sit and listen"
"On a stormy night, all the hatches were tight,
and our cargo was lashed with strong ropes
With my years spent at sea, never thought it'd be me
Who was finding it hard just to cope"
Mcgee's voice became weak, as he started to seek
something to drink from his mug
"Quick, buy him a beer, No, take mine, it's right here"
As Finn pulled out a stout jug
Then McGee took as sip, held the jug by his hip
And proceeded to render his tale
“There was a monster you see, as big as could be,
One that could eat a large whale”
Now, the men were all tense, and the monster immense
Growing bigger, with each pull of the plug
And the waves got much taller while the poor ship grew smaller
Each time McGee sipped from the jug
“ This monster you see”, said half drunken McGee
“Was a Kraken, attacking the ship,
took one look at me, pulled me down in the sea
With a lethal and almighty grip”
From out of the blue, Finn yelled “ What did you do ” ?
As McGee let loose with a laugh
With the free drinks all through, McGee said, “You Fool,
I DIED THAT NIGHT, ARE YOU DAFFED”
Categories:
hatches, humorous, sea,
Form:
Rhyme
I always thought that I was like my dad.
People tell me that I look like him
So, I just suspected that we were similar.
He doesn’t show much emotion
I don’t show much emotion.
He’s got blue eyes,
I’ve got blue eyes
He only has a select few friends,
I’m picky with my friends.
He’s funny,
I hope I’m funny.
I’m quiet and reserved,
He’s extroverted and sociable
But I’m at my best when I’m with people.
I’m open to people,
He’s super skeptical of people
I give a lot to people,
He gives a lot to those he loves but not really to those he doesn’t know.
I’m afraid to be alone,
He’s pretty much always been on his own.
Maybe we aren’t that much alike after all.
The saying opposites attract is true for him and I
But perhaps it’s the opposite for my mom and I
We don’t really look alike,
But we do the same things,
feel the same emotions,
still mine are on a much deeper level
For example, I could’ve only known a girl for a month
things end and I’m heartbroken.
It doesn’t happen all the time, it’s legit only when I put a lot of time into it.
The same goes for my mom
she gets over things she didn’t put a lot of time and effort into easily
but when something does
and it doesn’t work out
she takes it hard
we might not show on the outside
but on the inside
it’s like we are lone sailors in the middle of hurricane
trying to lock down the hatches
calling for help,
but just wanting to someone to understand us.
Which is funny,
because I’m 5 shoe sizes bigger than her
yet her shoes don’t seem to hurt my toes.
She always wanted a relationship with her older sister,
I’ve always wanted a relationship with a stranger.
We are so much alike that I tend to get annoyed with her
because it’s like talking to a different version of me.
I’m sorry for not recognizing this earlier mom
It turns out I’m just like you,
And I love it.
Categories:
hatches, best friend, family, mother
Form:
Free verse
Only silence dresses her rigging now
To the call of the bosun’s whistle
Her hatches now stand locked and secure
Where long past sailors once lingered
She is the last of the old frigates
Moored in the shallows of Charlestown
Board her and hear her echoes of valor
Haughtily anchored her colors humbly fly
No blemishes on her hull show her battles
Her carronades still sit silently waiting
As she floats mythically at ease
For a moment I can hear the great moans
Her keel and sailors cresting Atlantic waves
To Captain Hulls orders to come about
And charge on the enemy ship Guerriere
On her decks I feel the plight of her dead
Hearing stories of centuries old bulkheads
Astounding feats of a morose pride
To have brought their foe to capitulate
Now she stands tacit though ever grand
And still on her decks and deep in the bowels
The mighty spirit of U.S.S. Constitution dwells
A monument of endurance softly whispering
“Lest we remember long forgotten sacrifices…”
Categories:
hatches, history, inspirational, loss, mystery,
Form:
Free verse
As she drinks nectar from a flower, sweetness from heaven falls like dew
anointed with a gentle rain amidst sun showers she appears as if on cue
Lifting her wings she lands on a Zinnia beneath a tinted sky of April blue
flight of fancy fanning fast, fabulous marvel, she is beauty true on true
I'm in awe of such natural beauty, her wings resemble church stained glass
I've been captivated by the butterflies lifecycle ever since I was a lass
An egg hatches into a wriggly caterpillar, which munches foliage but that's fine
it transforms into a chrysalis, emerging as a butterfly in the sky and looks divine!
Categories:
hatches, butterfly, nature,
Form:
Couplet
I'm a man apart, repelled by the norm
Got my own path I chose to walk in
My eyes see things on a different wavelength,
my ears are attuned to another frequency
Never thought twice about the separation,
or the price of breaking free from the swarm
Always was comfortable in my own skin,
giving my all requires more than a tenth
Had a destiny to only live in ubiquity,
was told that seeking wisdom was the correlation
I've traveled through life's cosmic storm,
battened the hatches to my soul within
I'm on a mission, don't need to be convinced
Always knew deep down this was how it had to be
Running with the crowd, didn't have that inclination
I'm a man apart, never given to conform
I feel this poem has no existing form. If I am wrong, tell me what form it is. I wish to categorize it as "Step Rhyme" or "Rotating Rhyme." Each verse from the second line of the second stanza steps down. First line from the first stanza rhymes w/the second line of the second stanza. Second line of the first stanza rhymes w/the third line of the second stanza. Etc, etc. The last line of the final stanza rhymes w/the first line of the first stanza. Romantic Warrior
Categories:
hatches, introspection, muse, perspective, visionary,
Form:
Free verse
FLEEING IRMA
spotlight moon, full, like an Old Testament cloud, leading
Floridians forth, not into the desert, but away from the wrath
of Irma. bumper to bumper, neighbors from pilot to caboose,
illuminated in each other’s flood beams. testiness and pride
put aside, as fleeing cars, in camaraderie, brave the calm
before the storm. like the Israelites, they leave behind the
homes they know, put themselves in the hands of God. many
have family and friends north of their beloved peninsula,
an unintended visit, a warm haven, not a picnic nor a vacation,
but each pulls themselves up, for our Southern neighbors
are not of the craven sort. those who choose to live near the sea,
with its beauty and fortitude, know how to batten down the hatches.
hammocks left behind will tangle, and hug palm trees, suffering
the loss of their occupants. hotels, with never ending vacationers,
takes a much needed rest. God believes in rest, sometimes
a seven year sabbath, even when the soul forgets its place. we
pray, even north of the path, in stillness, we must, in gratitude,
never taking for granted, lest we too find ourselves seeking solace
elsewhere. godspeed our tanned Peninsula friends. godspeed
and bless, with safety, tenacity, and love as we reel you in.
9/8/2017
Categories:
hatches, car, people, religious, storm,
Form:
Prose Poetry
Down in the crypt where the caskets lie
And dust stirs up when trucks go by
Giggling sounds, not moans and groans
From the tomb of Skelton Bones
When the trucks go by no more
No light peeks beneath the door
Bony feet on an ice cold floor
Skelton Bones inspects his claw
Skelton Bones was a pirate, old
Sailed the seas in search of gold
His right hand by a dragon took
Now its claw is Skelton’s hook
Once, he’d dressed in silk and cotton
Skelton’s clothes are long since rotten
All that’s left, a belt and buckle
And his hat which makes him chuckle
He’s Skelton Bones; a pirate, nude
But not intentionally rude
He says, “Ahoy!” in pirate tones
That’s the sound of Skelton Bones
But now he has a yen to be
Once more sailing ’pon the sea
Been too long; three hundred years
Skelton calls his buccaneers
When the door creaks open wide
Ghostly pirates lurk outside
But with no seas to sail nearby
Skelton’s ship takes to the sky
Hear that Jolly Roger flap?
Or the canon hatches clap?
Keep a firm hand on your riches
Or he’ll steal them… and your britches
And as he rides the clouds and skies
A crew, undead, that never dies
In Skelton’s wake the east wind wails
It’s in his bones and in his sails
Categories:
hatches, fantasy,
Form:
Rhyme
Stop present time now!
Let us go no further.
Let's enjoy the now, somehow.
Muses and we, sisters and brothers.
Batten down the hatches on reality.
Only stars dance, we staunchly state.
Reality has no maternity,
We slammed it dead at the front gate.
Of only insignificance, can we pen?
Strange murmurings of only moons
and stars.
Reality to die slowly in a dark house
of busy pens?
Of that, dare not your soul ever move
nor start.
This world of writing, utterly unreal.
Where imagery is some despotic
king?P
And long words you must look up
to somehow beauty reveal?
To then bow low and kiss a poet's
ring?
September 13, 2020
8:30 pm PST
Categories:
hatches, feelings, poetry,
Form:
Rhyme
Batten down the hatches –
A storm is on its way.
Don’t know when it’s comin’
Or how long it’s gonna stay.
Every market’s crowded –
People gathering supplies.
No one wants to be caught short
Or taken by surprise.
Plans are being canceled,
Dates all rearranged –
Phones and laptops busy as
New info is exchanged.
We’re ready for the tempest –
We’ve got flashlights, candles, matches.
I’m prepared to do some battening,
But what the hell are hatches?
Categories:
hatches, life, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
Sometimes it's hard to remember
That greatness comes first from
Something so small and dependent.
Just as the Bald Eagle chick
That hatches so helpless
Must depend upon parents,
So was the growth of our country,
Finding her wings with thirteen
Colonies and a Declaration of Independence.
Boasting freedom to be necessary
And proper and showing
The world her wings of greatness.
First a poult and then a
Proud parent herself,
Soaring over all the world
Proclaiming that others
Will enjoy freedom,,
While protecting her domain.
Categories:
hatches, animals, inspirational, political,
Form:
Free verse
Return to heavy, layered clothes
Purple lips and frozen toes
One last breath before it snows
Loathsome precipitation
The land now strewn with slippery patches
Bye the wood stove, extra matches
Time to batten down the hatches
Human hibernation
The months meander, oh so slow
The cold impedes the rivers flow
The flowers weep, and wait to grow
I should be on vacation
There is some good, I do suppose
Snow topped trees in splendid rows
And all mosquitoes surely froze
Yet I'm filled with anticipation
For summer reveals my sunny side
I rub my eyes and step outside
To walk bare foot through turning tide
Still six more months of frustration
Categories:
hatches, angst, nature, seasons,
Form:
Rhyme
LOVE AND DEATH
ABAB
Love is a thing which perches in soul
and never dies for those who parts
forever and dies reluctantly for all
those who deal it with dull verve hence finally retards.
Its intensity can never be matched
by any way, any sense or any being
the loveliness of soul which initially hatches
in eyes and finally lead to an undying thing.
The iniciated feeling kisses the eye and lead
the body to shiver and form an never ending joy
joy which increases with senses and feed
the soul with luxury of peerless eyes and soothing joy.
When eyes fall on thine god, a material being
a wave travel from eyes to soul
and leave us shocked and lead us to drowse in feeling
of the cosmic one more beauteous, pretty then all.
A word from her soft coloured lips is treat
for your soul and finally try to speak
to that elf, an everlasting meet
in your brain did relive forever and make thee week.
But when you have conversed enough and all
secrets did revealed, the enthusiasm, the joy, the love
starts to retard and mighty love starts to fall
and fall all thy passions, thy deity thine happy dove.
Your drowsing in happy feeling, thine everlasting thing
decrease by degrees, you being unknown
the thing which use to shiver thine ere being
your love dwindles while thine body had grown.
But after ages when ye become pallid and calm
its assistance ye need or when you lay in despair
in this material world, it seems the only balm
which provide thee love and care.
A never ending charm an ethereal soul
which lift the mortal man from dying and and taking birth
and make life and death traveling journey for all
except those in whose nature there is love's dearth.
AKASH SANGWAN
Categories:
hatches, fear, inspirational, love,
Form:
Ode
WRITTEN IN DRUGS OF RAIN
Unscrupulous vulture-like officials standing inside skyscrapers;
they croon softly, but wield their pretentious tongues like blades--
casting spells on a throng of marginalized heads
whose mouths and bellies were squeezed and dried.
The promises they speak were written in a drugged rain
blown by the wind and dispersed in grains of misconception.
Beguiled man bit the taste and was addicted without haste.
(candle of hope was trampled --toppled down to fade..)
Secretly, these greedy, flesh -eating crocodiles of today
collude under wooden tables.
Their lust for gold and silver screaming,
they fill their jars of wickedness;
voraciously they feed their minds-- harlots of desire.
The big bellied ones whistle trying to clamp
leeches who don't only suck blood but also innocence;
but when the cluster of eggs break-- hatches
as they run so fast and release a loud.... prrrrt!
The misuse of drugs and ignorance cause
bodies to be spread in dirty smelly gutters.
The users mutilated dignity comes from a constant craving for
shots and puffs from these drugs leading to
gruesome miscarriage of suppose to be~~
--golden flowering dreams for tomorrow,
--transformers to a more unified earth,
--angels bearing an eye for justice and peace.
Manifold arrests for drugs affect the youth
and all others who grasp the illusions of euphoria.
Concerned individuals' throat drying cries, a forlorn scourge of agony...
Oh God, what sight that will be!
And now,
Shall we, knowledgeable of the effects of drug addiction, let such things happen?
Won't we drubbed such escalated catena of grief by doing something?
What can we impart?
What can we do to care?
When will we start?
©O. E. Guillermo
8:44 pm; November 13, 2014
Sponsor Debbie Guzzi
Contest Name Global Poetry
placed 3rd
Categories:
hatches, abuse, addiction, character, children,
Form:
Free verse
Are we ready for what’s to come?
Will we know how to behave?
Never before in human history has there been such disruption. It was once a much simpler place. No more. The future is arriving faster than ever before.
Gia now has a neural net the brain is coming alive.
Things are changing at such a clip not like anything seen before. Things will never be the same.
Computers that once filled rooms are now held in the palm of our hands. Not too many years from now they’ll be cursing through our veins.
Nanotechnology, biotechnology, computer technology exploding at such a pace, soon enough, the internet will be connected to our face.
We’ll all be part of the global brain, have instant access to all the knowledge mankind has thus far obtained. Soon, artificial intelligence will join us where we live, things will never be the same. Machines will build machines smarter all the time. Where we go after all this may drive us insane.
Some say we’ll build virtual worlds every bit as real, and designed them to meet our every need, absolutely ideal. No one knows for sure which way all this will go.
I suggest you batten down the hatches though, it’s going to be quite the show.
Categories:
hatches, art,
Form:
Prose Poetry