Best Plankton Poems
I really have outdone myself this time!
My ‘God Machine’ is finally in place!
I’ll never have to fret about a rhyme,
Or stop for a red light that changed from green
As if it sought to put me in my place
A random hiccup clearly quite obscene.
I really am quite clever I must say
My ‘subtle knife’ (1) allowing me to splice
My ‘God Machine’ into time’s tawdry day
The true God left completely unaware
That He is now controlled by my device
And just another victim of malware.
It seems there’s quite a lot that ‘God’ screwed up
That I intend to change now I’m in charge
I think that its bad form to cover-up!
So what’s the deal with dying anyway?
Let no one die will be my countercharge
And life is just a breeze on my freeway!
All pain mere nuisance, manna heaven sent
And sin gives you enormous facial zits
While love and kindness clear up all your rent.
Though talents differ, jealousies dissolve
As differences bring none real benefits
And non-destructive social moves evolve.
All birth defects, parental wealth passé
Genetic weakness gone with dodo bird
No accident of birth gives worth per se
Sins of the parent cannot taint the child
That God might favor one is just absurd
The color of one’s skin no more reviled.
But now I find my plans have gone awry
My God Machine decided I’m a flaw
It seems that I’m outdated samurai
Humanity endangering MY plan
Just plankton in the future’s yawning maw
Machine judged only advocate for man! (2)
Brian Johnston
November 5, 2014
Poet's Notes:
(1) subtle knife - A reference to a magical knife that can open windows in time in one of the 3 books in the Phillip Pullman trilogy 'His Dark Materials' including The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
(2) My poetic version of the lesson of the book and movie 2001 (written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke) where HAL, a computer so smart that it becomes sentient, decides that that only way to really protect a manned mission of a spaceship to the planet Jupiter is to kill all the humans on board the spaceship. The crew's humanity HAL decides is just too big a risk to the mission that HAL is charged (by its human programmers) to protect.
Davy Jones: Do you fear… death? Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare, all your sins punished?
—Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 2006
ALONE IN GLASS BOTTOM
Alone in glass bottom,
with plankton underneath -
boat’s in midriff of sea.
I’ve plenty of water.
Sink or swim - am I free?
Alone in glass bottom
Should I write a message?
Bottle it up or send…?
Could be my last chance to
navigate and defend.
Alone in glass bottom
Should I fish for a shark
and devour great white fin -
drive it deep in my heart?
Would that too be a sin?
Alone in glass bottom
swirling last gulp of rum,
the famous Davy Jones
frees the gold…and I grieve,
as the deep binds my bones.
4/6/2022
Contest: Form M - Monchielle
Sponsor: Constance La France
Theme: Ocean/Sea
RhymeZone and HowManySyllables.
Our supposed modern scientific genius
May in fact just be our last fatal weakness.
This technological house of cards we've made
Left humanity walking along the edge of a razor blade.
How much could you buy or sell using debit or credit
If someone or something wiped out the internet.
A computer virus, terrorists, hackers, or an E.M.P.--
Will wipe out our hard-earned wealth eventually.
Killing beneficial insects is almost like fratricide.
Think really hard again about ever using insecticide.
How many fields of vegetable plants and fruit trees
Will ever bear fruit if there are no more bees.
Rather than organically producing more living topsoil,
We're killing what remains with chemicals derived from oil.
As chemical contaminants follows their downward motions,
Choral reefs and plankton are dying in the oceans.
As a species, we've all become germ-o-phobic neurotics,
Religiously trying to kill all microbes with antibiotics.
But pharmaceutical medicine will never defeat every bug,
So one of these days there's certain to be a super plague.
So will we all starve because we cannot buy or sell,
Or because the oceans and farmlands have all gone to Hell?
Will we be extinguished by some invincible virus?
What ever it be, the fault will probably lie in us!
I wish I could offer some brilliant inspired solution,
But remember that extinction is also a part of evolution.
You may write me off as some kind of nutty alarmist,
But people that know me consider me to be an optimist.
I am tired of counting the red dwarf stars in the Milky Way.
I am tired of counting the 7 years of grain in Pharaoh's silos.
I am tired of counting the steps to the sacrificial altar of the Chichén Itzá pyramid.
I am tired of counting the people swallowed by the Antioch earthquakes of 115 & 526.
I am tired of counting the victims of the 1737 & 1839 India cyclones.
I am tired of counting the departed from the Influenza Epidemic of 1918.
I am tired of counting the death toll of the 1931 China floods.
I am tired of counting the total military and civilian casualties of WWI and WWII.
I am tired of counting the number of Jews killed at Auschwitz, Belzec and Majdanek.
I am tired of counting the drowned in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
I am tired of counting the biomass of plankton in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
I am tired of counting the needles on the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center
I am tired of counting the cracked and dirty windows at Riker's Island prison.
I am tired of counting down the clock until the our Sun becomes a red giant and dies.
God help me! I can't sleep. I can't sleep. I can't sleep...
I'm immortal. I have OCD. I'm so tired of counting sheep.
I was thinking
of you touching my belly
in one moment in time,
and me kissing your shoulder
in another.
I was thinking
of talk
and whiskey,
the sound of bass
and shyness.
I have no wishes.
I was just thinking
how it could be
if the world stayed round
but got so much smaller,
for only one room to be,
for you and me.
Authority figures, teachers and scholars
Tell me to think for myself;
Then grade my answers right and wrong
Based on an answer key kept on the shelf.
Write a poem that’s unique and original;
No structure - of your own free verse,
But before you put pen to paper,
Please listen to these strict rules first.
You will never get anywhere in life
If you don’t conform to societal rules;
I’m told by mentors in lemming suits
Taking me for one of their fools.
“Flowers are red young man,
And green leaves are green.”
Quoted from the verse of a Harry Chapin song;
Words I find so very obscene.
So give me an “F” and flunk me out,
Cause I finger my nose at you,
Tell me my free verse doesn’t conform
To its definition in your view.
I go to the formal in my birthday suit;
I use the salad fork to eat my meat;
I don’t care to conform for conformity’s sake
And don’t care if you find my position weak.
Be proud of yourself for sticking to your guns
And being exactly like every other clone;
I have no problem being the only one
Living on my own island all alone.
I’ll write a poem and call it free verse,
Or call it Charlie or Plankton or Pete,
And chuckle at those I’ve offended so
Knowing my portfolio is quite complete.
Out of all the creatures that live in the sea
There is only one that stands out for me
Cute looking and grey and on it's back a fin
You have probably guessed, it is the dolphin.
I'll describe them in detail so in your mind you can see
I will do my best to create some imagery
They grow eight foot long; have a tail and a fin
And a flipper on each side that helps them to swim.
A pod or a school is what you would call their group
They can do backward flips and loop the loop
Their food source is found in all the world's oceans
There's squid, small fish, plankton and crustaceans.
With cute slit eyes and a skin of silky grey
You can swim with them, but you'll have to pay
There are many now living in captivity
Now surely thats wrong , they all should be free.
Half of their brain stays awake when they go to sleep
Thats to prevent them from drowning when they're in the deep
They use echolocation, scientists have found
And thats how they know how to find their way around.
Sometimes they seem to jump up vertically
Spy-hop thats called so their surroundings they see
They sometimes follow ships and swim alongside
They're conserving their energy, they call that bow-ride.
The favourite is the bottlenose but there are others as well
Some species of dolphins in big rivers do dwell
They are very intelligent and awesome to see
And very beautiful creatures, I'm sure you'll agree.
To see them swim in the ocean is a beautiful sight
So keep your eyes peeled and one day you might
The first time that I saw one, I was just a child
In a movie called 'Flipper' sadly not in the wild.
Their habitat is changing and that's a tragedy
Because man is so selfish and pollutes the sea
And with careless fishing some do not survive
So solutions must be found so that dolphins can thrive.
Written on 15th January 2018.
Revised 15th February 2020
Entered into the 'Dolphins' poetry contest hosted by
Julie Leigh Rodeheaver.
Anteater's with their incredible 2 foot tongue
Bison their hides, one time under the gun
Cheetah's my, can they run
Dolphins bringing so much fun.
Elephants, Indian and African by the size of their ears
Fin Whales hunted, we share their fears
Giraffes so elegant long necked and tall
Hummingbirds hover, and never fall.
Insects, so varied in size and shape
Jackals howl as they relate to their mates
Kodiak, the island bears
Lobsters, caught, creeled and snared.
Mammoth, the awesome beast from the past
Nymph, insect larva's showing species may last
Octopus, tentacled dude of the sea
Plankton, the only food that is free.
Queen Bee, on the throne with her drones
Rhino with their keratin horns
Salmon living, return to spawn and die
Thrush, singing songs in tune as they fly.
Uakari, the Amazon new world monkey
Vulture's make the ground carrion free
Whippets a joy, as you watch them race
Xerus, the squirrel - the grounds his place.
Yak, the bovine of Himalayan heights
Zebra, white equids with their black stripes.
I walk along the shores of dead daffodils and daisies,
tangled in cursed roses and beach bones, in your absence~
reminiscing redolent sparks of skeletal silence,
while my heart aches to be within the arms of your midnight phrases.
But our love has stolen the moonbeams from the air,
only to be cast amongst the demons that fare,
fragmented fangs ready to inflict unearthly pain,
dancing in ritualistic reveries under the suffocating rain.
I still weave sequins of serenity into the tortured twilight,
to illuminate blazing bruises between blushing starlight.
For in this island of desolated shores,
I dream of spider veins,
screaming for a release from the tides of toxic refrains,
mirroring the voodoo iris~
within the somber soul of Medusa.
So let crimson remnants of our romance
carpet seething shells grieving~
in the bioluminescent haven of fallen angels,
where whispers of woes and abandoned ink,
translate the aroma of decomposing pleasures.
Remember I am thunder, singing the songs of the storm,
dressed in skin of sea and sorrow.
I wear the ocean like armor;
maybe one day, from the eerie sandcastles,
left along the corpse corals and plankton,
you’ll find my bleeding pendulum ~
buried in ivory stillness.
The evolution of humans is that
we went from simple cell
organisms to plastics.
All this fakeness makes me
want to embrace realness.
Blemishes and weight gain,
silver hair with golden bands
the struggles that come with reality
Dismantling falsities
that blind us from our truth,
You can't because
should be erased from
our vocabulary
becuase the mere definition
of becuase
should render
I can. I just want to feel real
have it ooze through
my fingertips
the same way saltwater
and sand flows through hands
when you try to take
hold of a beach.
I want to be reconnected
with plankton and
oxygenated substances.
Plastics are suffocating
that is way it has a
choking hazard as an
attachment.
Why can't you just enjoy yourself
in the skin your in?
Grow with it,
let it be your tuxedo
you wear in your golden years,
Your wrinkles and surgery marks
tears from broken hearts,
a smile that's slightly crooked
or a tongue that to this day
reminds me
it could've been a different
kind of yesterday.
Embrace the flaws
Hug them all
that's that
perfectly perfected feeling
of realness so many
seldom see.
That's what I see
when bodies have
evolved too far.
Illuminate her rusted locks
to strip her husk chagrin
as the water whipping silver spray
swirled heavy, pulls you in
This argyle blue is painful
'gainst your skin of yellow fall
to limbs bent thin of daisy stems
in an instant, rather small.
And yet you wish to join the fish
in their underwater parade
as nightfall casts it's meager light
on the plankton confetti cascade
Her hull is jewel bestudded
with a tanzanite chandelier
as the grief of pirate widows
she holds to her bosom dear
So tonight the twilight ball begins
complete with yearning violins
and dance you will as the lightning sings
and the ship crowns you as her ruin king.
Patrick Star is quite an odd ole starfish.
Considering he’s a star, pointy, and bright pink.
The Krabby Patty is one of his favorite dish.
Bikini Bottom know that Patrick stink.
Only a job at the Chum Bucket and Krusty Krab.
Patrick loves to be with his friend SpongeBob.
He always go to Sandy’s to destroy her lab.
Patrick eat and chews on nasty pink gum blob.
Run to Squidward who despises yellow.
Patrick loves to fish at Jellyfish Fields.
Plankton find Patrick to be extremely slow.
Secretes from SpongeBob was very concealed.
Patrick Star does live under a brown rock.
Patrick Star will always give you an shock.
I'm clinging to a rock,
Being battered by the waves.
At the mercy of the sea,
Living long and tedious days.
No escape for me,
Life's a constant tussle
Relentlessly being pounded,
It's not easy being a mussel.
Stuck here on this rock
Filtering away all day.
Nothing to eat but plankton,
I wish I could swim away.
Oh, to be a fish
And cruise the open sea,
I may be shackled to my rock,
But I dream of being free.
what goes around comes around so they say
atomic particles head to the shores
some afraid of an uncertain outcome
will plankton, fish, and kelp be destroyed
the chain of food for man interrupted
will the ocean’s food be radioactive
will it be deformed, grotesque, dangerous
humans who eat the nuclear exposed
slowly develop disease or mutations
at least one hundred years for the clearance
sixty-six years after the atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima, an accident
spilling nuclear waste sends outcries to stop
what goes around comes around so they say
Sponsor: Debbie Guzzi
Contest: Global Poetry
Topic: The Nuclear Leak/The Impact On Land And Sea
Humpback beauties call to their young
Communicating to calves so precious
Don't be so immediately audacious
You can wander, just don't go too long
Blubberous parents are there to keep them close
For companionship, warmth and learning
Send each other many signals, the little one is yearning
Because of the ocean they want to make the most
Eating their fill of plankton and krill
The smaller babe makes a hydro sonic point
To the older one who loves this oceanic joint
He doesn't want to hurt or kill
The humans who eavesdrop on their descant
Like some other whales with mammoth choppers
Accidentally maiming overboard fishermen and surfers
These watery wonders are appreciated that's all they ever want
Imbibing benevolent attention only for half a century
Deep sea divers first decided to bring down equipment
When he spoke his special song, they had no idea what the male bull meant
That day being approached he was so hesitant and on sentry
Because whalers before had waited for them to breach
The surface for mere minutes finding some oxygen
Finding instead a foreboding air of danger without question
So reclusive they remain, staying out of reach
Beaching is another danger when whales will cry
For help they so need it and must be rolled back out
A benign thing on sand dangerously sprawled about
Back into the depths it should be before it go dry
Nature's biggest mammals can never be at rest
In the wild and bountiful marine, using fluked tales to swim around
Whales have a lot to say, their stories abound
In civilized society with whale translators today we are at our best
Making compact discs of them, something special we can keep
The arias of the ocean composed of many shores
Whales speak responding in the ripples as prophets do with lore
It works quite well for some, to lull ourselves to sleep
We should always stay in assonance.