Best Pelicans Poems
Four Pelicans in formation
On bank of empty dam
Dust mites in restless wings
Old pelican
Perched atop
A railing at the end
Of Sunny Isles pier
His wings spread
His body teetering
In a salty breeze
As if in mid-flight
Stationary
But with all the motion
Of the universe
Rushing about him
Like a propeller
Whirling
And steering
In the currents of the sea
Yet absent a ship to thrust.
high in the blue sky
pelicans glide on thermals
aero dynamics
When I woke up last night,
anxious with worries,
I tried to remember the pelicans:
fifty white birds
snowed on a gravel bar
in the lake.
The trees on the bluffs were golden,
and the pelicans sat
under inky November sky,
preened with their great beaks
to prepare for the journey,
oblivious of our presence.
And the miracle
soothed my heart.
12/4/2017
Pelicans
By Franklin Price
6/6/2015
Pelicans are prepped
Under beaks are quite a pouch
For their fishing catch
Enjoying this day resting upon a plastic raft from the Dollar Tree
I’ve drifted away from the beach into the sea
Now beyond anyone’s reach, I am gone forevermore
And neither of us – neither I nor those on the shore
Realized I was drifting to the ocean past safety, on a cheap plastic raft aboard.
My bones are so heavy and dense that surely they’d sink fast to the bottom should my plastic raft deflate
But alone with no other hope, I have more faith in it than in anything else
including myself. This raft it is my life, future, and fate!
I float and gaze upon the swooping pelicans diving from the sky to the water’s surface
Then at the last second gliding and landing with such amazing grace.
I know not the depth nor the force of the current
pulling me away from the rest.
I never learned it could pull so swiftly this far north, south, east, and west
Leaving us all wondering where the rest of us went
Without notice given nor received
We drift with the waves into the sea
Soon the sun will set
And I’ll just glide and slide on my raft into the night, as though we’ve never met
My bones are so heavy on the ground, but on the raft so light
I just drift away with no sound and delight
In nothing to do but to watch pelicans dive and fly as I glide aboard a plastic raft
drifting in the ocean’s amazing grace before anyone notices it can no longer be saved, as it has floated too far away to come back.
Hankering hordes of hungry hovering hawks haunt hoodoos in Utah.
Underfed California condors cruise canyon cataracts for corpses.
Nesting, starving swallows swiftly search for slime and straw in Saginaw.
Gorging ravenous ravens roam Wrangell’s razor ridges in Alaska.
Eager pelicans patrol and plunge for perch in pallid Pacific waters.
Returning red robins round up ripe raspberries in Rhode Island.
4/1/2019 Writing Challenge 6, March 2019 - 6 lines Poetry Contest Sponsored by: Dear Heart
Pelicans crack me up, they waddle like Aunt Bea
But they're much more agile, they can also fly free
Aunt Bea jumps then crashes
On her multitude of fat asses
Methinks she's seen better days when she was three
They crest the white foam in perfect formation,
With purpose and strength they flap as they glide,
Fixated ahead in assured navigation,
Each trailing the other with nowhere to hide.
Then all of a sudden with no clear command,
They veer on some path and head for the sky,
Soaring the waves like a mischievous band,
Riding the thermals with a predatory eye.
No longer a pod but single torpedoes,
Spotting their quarry they launch with intent,
Diving at speed like rapacious mosquitoes,
To feast on that glimmering shoal now hell bent.
Again and again they dive to then surface,
Their sacks full of loot hidden from sight.
Transfixing, majestic, nature's true circus,
The curtain then falling as they once more take flight.
Florida's Pelicans, a marvelous sight,
Gregarious and cheeky with us so entwined,
Once hunted and culled as merely a blight,
Now in our hearts so fully enshrined.
Lost within the haunting howls
of a wild west wind
I savor the island’s isolation
its barren, rocky crags
its undulating seas below.
The ocean expands outward
as whitecaps whip frantically
while the beady eyes of seabirds
peer out from their stony perches.
Stoic sentries of the sea
pelicans and seagulls flock
along the rugged shoreline
purposefully perched in rows
or drafting wind currents in flight.
Still other seabirds skim silently
above the silky waves
great hunters of fish
their feathery wings spread wide
as if to capture the ocean itself.
A timeless rhythm prevails
as effortless as breathing pure salt air
in a place where land and sea convene
a place where seabirds reign
as vigilant watchers
within the endless cycle of life.
It was as if
the veneer of a morning
split open and six pelicans
flew out through the crack
carrying the light
of another world,
bright gold upon every wing
and passing overhead
had me bathed
in a moment until
they flew back
into their world,
leaving me to mine.
Three did down upon a line,
Three loop once for surprise,
Five more
then six were Southward bound
Now five onto a glide
Then one last one
another loop did.
The sun popped out a lushish hue,
A line upon the sea it drew,
Three more decided to fly by
As worlds reflect within each eye,
The sun then lazily lingered,
One did wait for two.
The visions began as two didn't land,
Another day sofend over
As the road beneith over passed,
Four this time were the last,
Homeward bound I seemed to be,
Home again from the sea.
________________________________________
The man who has no imagination
has no wings…
- Muhammad Ali
…………………..
They waddle clumsily
on webbed feet not fit
for treading sand
and their folded wings
just add weight to impair
their already awkward gait.
Pelicans are made
for air and water, being
landbound leaves them
deprived of grace.
Sometimes I flounder
like a grounded pelican
on the mud flats of myself.
Dragging my body along
I make for a sorry sight
until I remember I have
the power to imagine wings
and then, with perfect grace,
I take flight.
A large mass of pelicans
grace the waters
of fort loramie lake
in mid-march
a sign of springs coming
large orange beaks hang
off small white
stubby necks
as they parade across
calm waters
gliding graciously
in unison
gathered on lakes bank
no camouflage coverage
just white streaks in flight