Best Mariner Poems

The Mariner's old salted-air skin,  leather tight,
on a mast-hard frame of bones
and flash flood rushing blood,
faces ice-fed winds bouncing his ship
and helm cockeyed on continuous curling waves
from Nature's rough hewn seas,
beneath skunk-colored skies

Standing redwood tall,
in a locked jawed face of stormy, screaming weather
with honey...

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We're glad the baseball season is over.
For Mariner fans, no fields of clover.
Won half as many as we lost.
Tickets too high at half the cost.
Next season look for a big makeover.






For Linda-Marie's Sport  Limerick contest  won #4...

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To be a mariner.

We set sail for the Indies, our cargo stowed below,
As we leave the port of Liverpool and the woman folk we know.
Our journey will take sometime, and the weather seldom kind,
A fleeting glance of the harbor quay, and the love I left...

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Ancient Mariner
River City H2O, no more 
now for drought shaming...

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The Mariner

Crystal tears falling down my cheeks
Behind the curtain face peeks
My skin so pale with broken lips
Wait for jack-tar and daily trips
The mariner stood so great he is
My soul is jumping into bliss
His face and lips and all i miss
So great feeling cant get through...

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She was lying on the Ethel’s turret with a sting in the tail
            Felt a squirt on her face and barrette; is it the end of the tale?
      ...

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A mariner went a'pon the sea
To find his fair lass a pearl
So he in grand fettle 
Gathered his mettle 
And let his ship's sails unfurl

No able for the deed so tough
The mariner would pey the mail
So he all alone
Would find no stone
And his venture would...

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" Rime of the Ridiculous Mariner "

{warbled to the Merry Tune: Jingle Bells!}

Jingle Bells & Flyin' Hulls
All sheets in so tight~
Yikes Ahoy! There's the ploy!
Sail right through this night!

Run downwind beat to weather
fall off as ye wish~
Set your mizzen up yer main
tops'ls catch all flyin'...

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Lying here in this life’s final berth,
No longer escaping to the sea.
If the greatest lie of all is not birth,
Death is life’s great treachery.

I think back to the times I spent
Sifting through the briny deep,
Deeply inhaling the saliferous scent,
Pleasure enough to make one weep.

The grave...

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A mariner leaves for months at a time
With a wind in his sails and a goal in mind

He doesn’t know what lies ahead
And he eats lots of fruit with dry wheat bread

The adventure calls and ignites his soul
But Mother Nature bawls and takes her toll

Hurricanes...

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The Ancient Mariner’s Fate
 
Eternally doomed adrift
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Mariner repeats his 
Story over and over now.

A sad soul in true agony
Incomprehensible
His heart now dry as dust
To his fate he must bow.

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 3, 2018 (Double Dactyl)...

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Walking along the crest of the dunes
Where unusually spindly seedlings grow,
I ponder on a sailor’s plaintive croons
Across the sea, so very, very long ago.

When a mariner’s life was lonely, solitary
Hard work without the comforts of home,
Confined to the high seas involuntary
With gray and misty blue’s...

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Ocean turmoil waves thrash with pure fury
Remote stalwart lighthouse on bed of rock
Shaft of light warning ship sails securely
Wild elements bombard around the clock.

On the darkest of night when all is drear
No stars to be seen and bright moon obscured
Mariners stand watch resolute no fear
Brilliant...

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2.  "over the waters blue the night winds sigh, the breakers roar ... Samual Taylor Coleridge


Wailing wind amid strongest ocean storm
Night falls swiftly on tumultuous scene
Sailors aware for they have been well-warned
This is their reality not a dream.

Through long hours before sun ordains to...

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Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes,
Pondering ancient mariner lore
Walking along the seashore,
Scenes my mind can scarce restore
Of sailors and their pirate foes,
Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes.

Written March 10, 2022...

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