Best Lifeboats Poems
I always hated water,
being in the middle of nowhere,
but it was the only way to be with you..
Now,
I'm helpless, my fingers trembling,
lips quivering, eyes full of tears,
as this ship sinks, inch by inch.
I write what are my last words,
as the stench of fear,
slowly fills the bitter air.
I'm so scared.
I can see lifeboats over loaded with the 'privileged',
their aura in a state of shock, but so sullen.
Not all children have escaped, not all children!!!
How is that fair??
Some have jumped into the sea,
desperate to survive,
but its too cold.... It's freezing.
I'm just going to accept there is no escape.
I don't know if I'm a coward or being brave,
but I refuse to go up to the deck.
This room is now my tomb.
The violinist won't stop playing,
his music, so eerie,
as we face our fate.
The captain said;
"Even God could not sink this ship."
But you can't cheat God..
I see him crying in the corner,
ready to decay into death -
such a pathetic man.
There are brief screams of
"Help!"
but then only a haunting silence.
I think about my mum
tell her, I love her and I'm so, so sorry,
for I left her behind to follow my dreams,
where I thought I would find heaven,
but now seem bound into the unknown..
I had left the English shores,
to be in your arms my sweetheart..
So many hopes, so many promises
to be together... Forever,
to touch and caress your soft skin
and to place this gold ring on your finger,
dreams of children, places we would see,
food we would eat, poetry we would recite,
starry nights and sweet sunsets,
now slowly fade away...
I can see your face,
your almond eyes, your scarlet lips,
your hand reaching out to me...
An enchanting last mirage.
I'm so sorry my love,
so, so, sorry,
to leave you this way,
life can be so cruel,
but remember me,
please don't forget me,
you were my only treasure
I just wish I could have kissed you one more time...
but God has deprived that from me...
Please don't mourn for me,
but cherish our memories,
be happy and live your life,
find love, have children and
travel the world..
At least, I will not live in regret.
I write my last words with my last breath,
as I begin to feel numb,
I will place my hands together and repent...
This is my goodbye to the world.
This Medusa had no power to turn us into stone
but when she ran aground over Poseidon's throne
his anger stirred, and into the sea the crew was flung.
On a raft urgently built of salvaged timbers we clung.
A hundred and more escaped before the frigate sunk
and after four days adrift, our number had shrunk.
With naught but salted sea to sate our massive thirst
I vowed not to give in. I swore I'd not be the first
to yield to temptation and drink myself to death
though feverish from the intensity of the sun's breath.
On the eighth day, hunger turned men into savages,
feasting on flesh in a moment of rapacious ravages.
Bloated bodies bobbled like apples off Africa's coast.
I contemplated my fate to become what I dreaded most-
being tossed off the raft, into a shark's clamping jaws.
To survive, no one had agreed to abide by man's laws.
I'll not forget the look of fear in the eyes of others,
sailors who once proudly called themselves 'brothers.'
Each of us clutched and clawed for an inch of the raft.
The feeble ones cackled as though they'd gone daft.
Arms and legs entangled among the living and dead,
as an alabaster corpse pillowed a sun-blistered head.
The demented swam away, flailing arms in roiling waves
until they perished in the depths of their turbid graves.
Alas the day, two weeks in, a ship sighted on the horizon.
Fifteen survivors with charred skin, lean and wizened
rescued from death's grip in a morbid human experience.
Men who'd given up on hoping for a timely deliverance,
their bodies emaciated, and their clothing, threadbare,
destined to relive the catastrophe in gruesome nightmare.
August 4th 2022
2022 Marathon mile 11 Contest
Sponsor: Mark Toney
NOTE: In June 1816, the French frigate Medusa, ran aground off the coast of Senegal. Because of a shortage of lifeboats, some 150 survivors embarked on a raft and were decimated by starvation during a 13-day ordeal, which descended into murder and cannibalism. Only a handful remained when they were rescued at sea.
Listen, my dears, and I'll tell you a tale
Of a princess, a pirate, and glory.
There's a shipwreck, a rescue,
A romance, a ransom,
And a handicapped whale in the story.
There once was a princess, fairest of all,
But also quite vain and spoiled rotten.
She had a semi-private
Affair with a pirate
That would be but for me now forgotten.
The pirate, Mad Jack, was bloodthirsty and crude,
When upset, he'd explode, blow his top off.
Merchant vessels he sank,
Made their crews walk the plank,
Or, more rudely, their heads he would lop off.
One day Princess Daphne set out to sea
With her maid, they were bound for Majorca.
But the maid, in a gale,
Was swept over the rail
And inhaled by an asthmatic orca.
Lifeboats were lowered, the crew clambered in
And rowed quickly away, only thinking
Of saving their own necks,
Not the princess below decks
Left alone on a wreck that was sinking.
Then through the storm a ship hove into view,
At first Daphne thought it would dodge her.
But before she could hail her,
She felt courage fail her,
From its mast flew a vast Jolly Roger.
When Princess Daphne was brought before Jack,
She was haughty but thought he was handsome.
But to his greedy eyes
This fair royal prize
Represented a shipload of ransom.
But Jack was still human, Daphne was too,
And soon they were sharing their privates.
To his quarters she moved
And his crew all approved,
No one loves a love tale more than pirates.
But what of the ransom, yet to be paid?
Well, here the plot gets even deeper.
The stingy king said to Jack,
"No, I don't want her back.
It's cheaper for me if you keep her."
So Princess Daphne became Jack's sea wife,
And though common, but not mandatory,
When they became parents
They stopped being pirates
And passed peacefully out of the story.
For now then, my dears, that's the end of my tale,
An adventurous one hard to equal.
But, if I may be so bold,
And there's more to be told,
It may one day unfold in a sequel.
She couldn't contain her rhapsody demeanor much more
hugging her husband and gushing with excitement as he closed the door
the third class cabin was modest but she thought it would do
finally spending time together in this steerage cabin room
After dining together and playing cards with some other passengers
they retired to their cabin and did some reading till their eyes tired
then they spooned together in the darkness of the room
and made passionate love being they were on their honeymoon
Sound asleep till they we're abruptly awaken by a violent jarring
finding out from people running about it was from an icebergs scarring
throwing on their overcoats they we're thrown two lifejackets
and fought their way up to the top deck amidst all the panic
Their weary eyes saw the last lifeboat being lowered down to the ocean
many brave men staying behind waving trying not to show emotion
the newlyweds hugged each other while their faces wept
about to go down with the ship into the fathomless depths
They held hands while trying with all their might to hold on and grip
as the ship rose up perpendicular making them and others slip
the ship now offered nothing but quietus to the passengers on board
as they both plummeted in slow motion down to the ocean floor
Some survivors in the Titanic lifeboats watched with pitiful awe
while others who lost loved ones lost control and bawled
the ones who lost many possessions tried not to show too much enmity
while the newlyweds love story would last for all eternity.
3-18-18
“Friends are the lifeboats, that save
us, in the ravages of life’s storms!”
3/14/2024
It was in July of 1945
And the USS Indianapolis
Had a crew of nearly 12 hundred alive
But a Japanese sub fired and did not miss
American sailors had completed their job
Delivering parts for the first atomic bomb
Some sank with the ship, others in the sea did bob
No food, few lifeboats, ocean deceptively calm
Surprise attack, no distress signal had been sent
It was four days later those floating were spotted
The survival rate was just 25 percent
With hundreds of sailors’ bodies the sea was dotted
In the movie “Jaws” as Captain Quint had related,
“The sharks came cruisin'. So we formed into tight groups.”
Six men per hour were killed while for help they waited
All were lost but 316 Navy troops
Some victims died of exposure or starvation
But far more were killed by the sharks that had attacked
These men lost their lives in service to our nation
But bomb parts delivered had a deadlier impact
One of the last ships that was sunk in World War II
The Indianapolis had turned the war’s tide
With a mission carried out by a courageous crew
Victory was soon celebrated by allies worldwide
This is an entry for the History Poems contest
At
Dunkirk,
where thousands
of stranded men
lined a bloody beach,
hope was draining with each
air strike delivered by the
unrelenting Germans’ aircraft.
Cold, starved, and injured men watched from shore -
their few rescue ships being bombed and sunk.
How must they have felt knowing their homeland
was so close – and yet so far away?
Horrific days passed when at last
brave civilians came with boats,
so it was that ten times
the number of those
not expected
to live were
instead -
SAVED.
Aug. 16, 2017: Double Etheree written for
JPContest 6: WAR AND HEROISM Contest
From Wikipedia:
The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940.
The operation commenced after large numbers of British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured.
On the first day only 7,669 men were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 soldiers had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 boats. Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 39 destroyers of the British Royal Navy, 4 Royal Canadian Navy destroyers,] and civilian merchant ships, while others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what came to be known as the little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain. In his We shall fight on the beaches speech on 4 June, Churchill hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".
My father had been out of work for way too long.
At night, I often heard him and mom weep
Food was scant, but love was strong.
As was that hunger pain when I lay to sleep.
My little brother was too young to understand.
Still a babe in arms, he brought our only smiles.
I loved to play with him and hold his tiny hand.
It seemed to take away the hurt from life trials.
Then, one-day dad came home all excited.
He was talking so fast, grinning from ear to ear.
He said that our future was well fated.
That we were in for adventure was clear.
It was that new ocean liner, the Titanic.
Dad had been hired for the maiden voyage.
We were going along as his sidekick.
A family destined for American homage.
In just five days we boarded that ship.
Immigrating was a dream come true.
Accommodations would be a hardship.
But it was worth opportunities…new.
Dad worked as a scullion in the restaurant.
We were housed on the lower deck.
It was a very crowded lodgment.
We stayed together until the shipwreck.
Sirens were screeching people screaming.
We could not find dad anywhere.
Was he locked up as a cageling?
Could it be true; was he trapped down there?
Lifeboats were being lowered.
Mom held my brother, crying.
Dad must be somewhere cloistered.
We all feared a dreadful dying.
Someone put me in a lifeboat.
I reached for mom as it descended.
The Titanic was still afloat.
But my family separated.
The water was freezing.
I had forgotten my coat.
People crying, sniffling, and sneezing.
The lifeboat soon became an iceboat.
Within a few hours, death began.
Shivering, I crawled beneath two corpses.
A young girl destined to live without her clan.
Hidden from polar breezes.
That was the last time I saw my mother.
My mind holds the image clearly.
She, calling for dad, was cuddling brother.
Oh, how I loved my family dearly.
When rescuers finally arrived.
I was the only one alive in the lifeboat.
Beneath those bodies, I survived.
Then, I was wrapped in a warm coat.
I never did see America.
I was sent to an orphanage back home.
Life had dealt a great trauma.
Forever had sunken in the ocean's foam.
© April 9, 2012
Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
Written for Poetry Soup Member Contest: My heart will go on and on.... Free Poetry
Sponsor Tracie ~*~ Indigo Dreamweaver
She leaves Southampton
This Titanic ship
Her maiden voyage
New York trip
Channel crossings to Cherbourg, France
To Queenstown in Ireland
Where passengers dance
To some, a new life awaits
The future will seal their fate
Newfoundland waters
Temperature drop
Impending disaster
Without a thought
Lookouts, Fleet and Lee
Spot a large iceberg close to she
Sitting off her starboard bow
Sweat dripping from their brow
Telegraph indicator
In confusion state
This colossus of ice
Sits and waits
Inevitable meet
As natures diamond rips
Starboard side
Of this most wonderful ship
Rivets pop, buckled hull
Atlantic intrusion, in volumes now
Compartments fill, this White Star gem
Will we ever see her likes again
Distress signal sent
As the crew are readied
This ship of ships
Emotionally unsteady
Lifeboats launched
Woman and children first
On this terrible night
Many fear the worst
So many passengers
Few lifeboats
As all around
Bodies float
Stern raised, props showing
Metal talking, funnels choking
Lights flicker off and on
Blackout
The sheep stood on the burning deck, when all but he had fled
Someone had placed the captain's hat upon his woolly head
So bravely stood the sheep upon his first and last command
Promoted to high station and to duty's dire demand.
Beyond the ship to starboard, he surveyed the churning sea
And the crew, all in their lifeboats, working furiously,
To gain a good safe distance, they rowed both fast and well
So they would not go down with the ship beneath the final swell.
Comes the moment, comes the sheep and, as the captain on the deck,
The sheep stood in command, but with a rope tied round his neck
As the waves came lapping up and all the flames went dying down
It sank beneath the waves with the sheep and his proud crown.
Titanic down
Lifeboats adrift
Many saved
Many missed
On the scene " The Carpathia "
To the saved ones
The real White Star
Off she steams
New York ahead
Leaving behind many dead
Pier 54 this saviour docks
As New Yorkers race to flock
To witness survivors of this tragic ship
On her Maiden Voyage did she trip
April 14th, 1912 she shone
April 15th, 1912 she was gone.
Since it was founded over 200 years ago the RNLI has saved over 146,000 lives at sea, often putting themselves in great danger, I salute those brave men and women, those guardian angels of the sea.
Quote by poet.
The R.N.L.I is an old institution,
of volunteers who save lives at sea,
of them I have nothing, but admiration.
Six hundred of them have died tragically
since its formation two hundred years ago,
always remembered for their selfless bravery.
They venture out in heavy rain, fog, and snow
with hurricane force winds and 70-foot waves,
only experienced crew are chosen to go.
Many volunteers lie in watery graves
often taking risks that end in tragedy
brave men and women, heroes of the waves.
The lifeboats are a registered charity
and survive because of your generosity.
Need there’s to smile nor cry in life,
What will, will by and by in life.
Bank to bank lifeboats ply in life,
Still, the same boats must die in life.
One must swim, cannot fly in life
Whilst sorrows do defy in life.
Think, what to sow, not sigh in life
If rainy gets the sky in life.
To unknot tangled tie in life,
Nigh silent should one try in life.
______________________
Ghazal |08.07.2025| life, philosophy
Note: Both the lines of all the couplets of this ghazal have a rhyme (qaafiya) and refrain or recurrence (radeef).
The Luxury Cruise
By Elton Camp
A long ocean cruise I decided to book
Travel funds for several years it took
But it was money very well spent
And I am extremely glad that I went
The cruise ship was a positive delight
Never had I seen such a fine sight
The outside was painted all in white
The cabin was comfortable and bright
The captain went out of his way
So good things we would have to say
The power they occasionally shut down
So we could enjoy slowly drifting around
From the kitchen came fire and smoke
They took us out so we wouldn’t choke
The cool ocean breeze on our face
Then it was back to the dining place
The stateroom toilets are kept so clean
Water overflowing you should have seen
Any accumulated waste was swept away
Great concern for hygiene, I must say
Once the ship was parked on the ocean floor
So there was so much motion as before
For any who tended to get seasick,
That consideration did the trick
Then came an exciting end to our cruise
Trip monotony not a person could accuse
Lifeboats we were then allowed to ride
Without even waiting for rising tide
The massive ship and hopes were lost
No lifeboats left for passengers
Their lips were blue, skin bit by frost
The massive ship and hopes were lost
Atlantic Ocean not yet crossed
The radar failed, no messengers
The massive ship and hopes were lost
No lifeboats left for passengers
*Written August 28, 2014 for Sara's "Zeugma" contest