Best Riptides Poems
In the endless expanse
of what exists
and the magic of what can be...
fantasy is the luster of opalescence
conceived in a continual curve of mother-of-pearl panache
spinning through a sacred spiral in effervescence
they arise - in bare necessity
and break the surface -
perceptions of prismatic potential
bending colors in the light of consciousness
daydreams delve
between realms of serenity and dampened spirits
amidst meditations
to unfurl the waves’ curl of life’s mysteries
where faceted riptides flash sun-diamonds
and twilight’s bruised beauty is but an abstract -
in mixed moody moon-shades
of earth’s passion and human nature
enriched with celestial nuances
I reflect within this mirrored space
as I search to adorn my naked thoughts in nacreous chic
breathing bliss and sipping soulful seas
my wild whimsy in wanderlust glides like an albatross
seeking the iridescence of the abalone shell --
a marvel of profound imagination
Susan Ashley
January 10, 2019
~ First Place ~
Premiere Contest: Free Verse Style Only Poetry
Sponsor: Emile Pinet
*nacreous: consisting of or having the luster of mother-of -pearl*
Categories:
riptides, imagination, inspiration, introspection, muse,
Form:
Free verse
sea-urchins in rock pools –
the flesh, a delicacy –
sparkle –
protected from the ocean
where anemones proliferate –
by a mist-glistening
heart shaped rock:
the keeper of my secrets –
a cache of memories
of mornings snorkelling
surface
eddy on the periphery
—homesick for my roots—
a keeper lost to shifting tides
white horses
masking risk in its wake …
a plastic wrapped sushi tray
on the kitsch kitchen counter
awash with the detritus of daily life—
a cold cup of coffee
milk skin
swirling like
liquescent marmoris
fluctuant under
fractured light
tender moments
where flaws hide in the spotlight
Laetrile induced
unsettling riptides
where occasionally colour swirls
marbling visions
the future liquescent …
I’m drowning in
proposals of memories
to be made with loved ones
family secrets to
be offered up
a dish that could be as
risky as Omakase …
smiling indulgently with my eyes
as a mirror-smooth ocean –
a north-westerly wind
whipping up the occasional white horse –
hides its turbulent depths
so a state of amenomania
settles over me
the final images
– as requested –
the secrets of my life
tucked away in an abditory—
eddying between past and future
the key to
unlocking it
—left in their hearts—
Categories:
riptides, family, introspection,
Form:
Other
Within the creeping shadows,
do you think you can find me?
Before chaos implodes my soul ~
I’m lost amongst childhood
memories, pounded to ash and dust,
clouding my sight,
as silence stifles my screams.
Whilst rivulets of water collect
around cracked soles,
cold liquid rushes
with each word left unsaid,
rising as foreboding
talons scrape against the ballast
stones of despair.
Spiritual hunger gnaws at my insides,
pain filling a closing throat.
O Helios Flare,
burning the crystalline odyssey,
sailing through sinister sapphires ~
I let my muse
spill cues of clemency,
allowing the salt of stillness
to kiss the bronze bones
beneath my quivering skin.
As I taste the f e a r s ,
the trembling turmeric
of the sun I once loved ~
soaked in
t e a r s of the dragon,
for you and for me.
Yet will the green-eyed gales
ever know, ever feel,
the truth I have traced?
The caged nightmare
that bound my gossamer,
leaf-like wings,
taming me to a gruesome game
of bleeding blame and bruises,
as though I were fated
by the blaze of kismet ~
to be the chained dreamer,
drowning in darkness,
choking on unspoken sorrow,
suffocating on splitting stars,
oblivious to the opalescent
shimmers of moonlight
singing within these vain veins…
So tonight, in muted midnight,
I write ~ and I weave ~
swaying to sulfur-laced,
gustless breezes,
all whilst the choir of dead dreams
serenades abounded hopes,
departed in fractured equilibrium.
No longer able to stay
afloat amongst raging riptides
of repressed trauma, I plummet
into the seas of tranquility,
hoping to emerge
b a p t i z e d by the
empathetic estuaries
flowing through heavens...
Categories:
riptides, dark, gothic, imagery, introspection,
Form:
Free verse
I've listened to it's calling, in awes amazement
Felt the rush of the waves between my bare feet,
Allowing the bubbles of sea form to explode,
As I spread my toes digging them deeply,
Within the beaches warm sand.
Then at this moment of perfect splendor,
I pondered in thoughts deep contemplation,
At natures raw marvelous wonderment.
Oh how I envy the seagulls above,
Whom soar above this blue blue aquatic world,
How free they seem to dive admits the powder clouds
Of the divine, crying in joys liberation.
These master fisher birds, gleaning morsels of
Food at the surf of the waters top layered edges.
White winged creatures hanging effortlessly
Upon breezes of air, rippling over the currents
Tidal surges.
Behold the epic beauty of the timeless sea, it brings
The sacred heavens themselves to weep, the angelic
Angels tears fall from Nervous itself, melting the sky's
Blue to blend with the waves, giving the bluish tint to
The aquatic world of elegance beneath.
Against the sheltering coves coral reef,
Within the wake of the rolling riptides crashing,
Scattered are the delicate aquatic trumpets of Poseidon.
A tender weepings sounding, is heard within
The hardened shelled cocoon of the sea shells,
As they wash upon the sandy shore.
Hush now mortal and listen to the sweet song of
The sea, softly it so plays in meiotic rhythm,
Enchanting the vision insight of clarity, to beguilement
Of tranquility.
Can you not the hear the swaying of the tropical trees,
Lightly being caressed by the breezes of the sea,
On the distant shores of enlightenment.
At twilight's golden hour of sunset, the lord spreads
Wide his miraculous canvas, to display his master
Work of divinity.
A brilliance shimmering in light of the divine,
Held encapsulated within the sea shells song.
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
Categories:
riptides, art, beauty, imagery, imagination,
Form:
Free verse
MERMAID'S FLIGHT: A Collaborative Sea Sonnet
Mermaid's Flight
Poseidon drew up from the salty sea,
a silver splash of wave from Earth to Moon.
Sailor appealing Neptune's pride of three,
gazed down fantasizing mermaid's kiss soon.
Great sea-storm surge may eternally faze,
sweet paradise in lonely sailor's dreams.
Then lifted is she from the coral maze,
held in riptides and pressed in boiling streams.
Then up he rides on his seahorse untamed,
and captures her mad from his winded ride.
From dark sea depth's hold, sweet mermaid unnamed,
in sailor's arms, Neptune can not abide.
He named the sprite and kissed her full and well,
from heaven's grasp he gained the star that fell.
By Robert J. Lindley & Edlynn Nau
© May 12, 2016
Note-- Has been a great pleasure to create this poem with my very talented friend,
Edlynn Nau..
Edlynn's ideas and creativity are a breath of fresh air to a tired old poet...
My sincere thanks my friend.....
SORRY FOR THE DELAY DUE TO MY MOTHERS ILLNESS AND MY TIME THUS SPENT.
Family first, I know you understand.. Thanks
Categories:
riptides, art, beautiful, love, mythology,
Form:
Sonnet
9-21-22
Contest: I Wandered Lonely as a…Challenge
Sponsor: Natasha Scragg
11-4-22
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 19
Sponsor: Mark Toney
"I wandered lonely as cloud." Daffodil by William Wordsworth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Wandered Lonely as a Teardrop
I wandered lonely as a teardrop
In a sea of sand,
A tempest in one glistening drop,
Ruthless riptides of demands
Rush through a narrow neck of outlet
Turned upside down in midnight vignettes.
Cold specks of numb and ancient stone
Deaf to remorse of a single sigh
Tumble past my burn scar so alone
That weeps with solitude's clouded eye
No time to stop for struggling strangers
To get involved - a diffident danger.
A writhing sea of rushing crowds
Parts around my stifled sob
Roaring indifference shouted out loud
Guarded pain in my teardrop throbs
The shape of quivering unheard laments
Empathy drown and mercy absent.
My colorless grief weeps without end
In oceans like a shipwrecked nomad
Blocked from the warm fount of a friend
Heartbroken by a lost comrade
One teardrop cries to understand
The maddened surge in a sea of sand.
Categories:
riptides, angst, grief, journey, sea,
Form:
Rhyme
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skipping stones across the still quite waters
While as enclosed within these submerged thoughts....
Pondering this blanket of fogful mist alongst the path, have I tread and beared
As in time as in life as of recent days
Allowing shadows their moments somehow, someway?!
Lost amid the backwards brush of a translations, understanding....
Interpretations tattood upon my heart like an inverted crossing
Blood drenched quills soaked in cardinal red
Etched upon the caverns walls of what should have been said
These words this verse a world and then!?
Skipping stones from my very own Souls bleeding wounds
In gushing currents caught to seep through this they rent
Poisoned dreams; saturated walls aneath ripplings effects....
Rising dunes across quicksand deserts born in the mires; deeper and deeper
Into sedations daze as the storm clouds quickly gather above
Translations from these interpretations of, so called love?!
But how could this be and why I ask myself again
As the undertow of riptides begin to draw them in; further, into their sin...
Blood atop the pages to be extracted this breath of life
Life, that I have longed to embrace; to present
Spilled until its love had morphed into something bent!?
Stepping back from the edge now, upon this mountains cliff
The valley below amid chasteless darkness beckoning unto my Spirit
Calling from beyond; enticing tongues soaked in the stillness of, cortege red....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
....“Skipping Stones” ~
Categories:
riptides, hope, life, love,
Form:
I dwell on this sandbar.
Between the shallows and the deep.
So free and yet so oppressed.
But during the rarest of moments
I truly know that I am blessed.
Do I make for the mainland.
Facing riptides of salt and teeth.
Or wade through sharpened coral hearts.
onto that cay of stagnant familiarity.
I tend to teeter toward the shallow.
but there are pools so blue -so deep.
So why do I ride this burning sandbar?
It's out of fear I tend to think.
Categories:
riptides, adventure,
Form:
Rhyme
Dredged from the depths of a shaken Sennen seashell
she hears once more his voice, low, sonorous tones, sees the bones
of her past laid out, splayed out, another story
playing out, can feel it in her bones,
his voice burrowing in, deep beneath skin,
a cold blade digging in, the tide coming in,
shrouds of sea mist closing in, the veil blowing thin,
membranes of memory breaking...She sees anew the drowning seas,
sees for the first time his strangling hands,
pebbly skulls, seaweed ropes, skeletal fingers of coral
forcing bone-white wrecking lights into her cove...
Bone-bleached semen strands, Sennen's strand stretching
soiled sand before her like life or fate, grains like pulverised bones.
His dark-dune lurking, water-window watching,
waiting for riptides; a ripping of fabric, ripping of hymen,
sea-hymns now silent on salt-sheened lips
plump-pouty with youth. It's sordid, uncouth,
the salt sprinkle of sea-sweat sheening his skin,
the breath and the fingers quickening,
the coral's rough rigidity piercing, ejaculation of sea foam...
Buried deeper than bones, the sudden rush of memory waves
rattling bones of the past, shaking Sennen seashells.
Gulls screaming into the guilty hush.
Secrets hidden by sea-silenced sand.
Categories:
riptides, abuse,
Form:
Free verse
Falling down to my splintering knees,
Heaven or Hell, the stone will be cast.
Like whiplash, the ground beneath me begins to crack open
As my truth is played out against an apocalyptic backdrop.
Sins weighed against my empathic
compassion,
Caught in riptides of my darkness; will light save me?
Flames lick against my flesh as the vultures circle around.
Pleading to the heavens, I swear my truths are sincere.
I pushed back against those incessant inner
demons
As they flirted with the devil.
But my sanity assimilated, and I plunged down that pit.
Sins took hold, infecting, infesting; the damage that
was already done.
I plead for your unconditional mercy:
Don’t let the razor teeth tear me apart.
Categories:
riptides, dark, imagery, perspective, poetry,
Form:
Verse
Rubbing boys shoulders with sunburn oil. The sun smiles at the pain, the brush of fingers against raw flesh. But like a war wound, those boys be proud. Offer them a salve and they scoff, don’t need that stuff. Head back to the beach. Nudge them with a board and a wave, and they take off, up to their knees, casting themselves into the sea. Cheeks and hairlines have enemies, but the boys will wait for the tan that turns them brown, puffed up, back to tell the tales to jealous schoolmates.
They won’t speak of palm trees, nor the hot sand; perhaps they will not even remember what to say, until a prompt. Perhaps they won’t shut up about the knock down, drag out fights with the ebb and flow of riptides.
They might not remember the food that filled their empty bellies, but they enjoyed each bite of burgers at Ford’s Garage in the oldest city in America. I heard from an eyewitness that it has ghosts, the city, not this particular haunt.
Packed like fish, we headed to Florida, having to use one of the back seats for the overflow of things. My oldest grandson had to endure his seat, likened to a ball turret gunner. But this pubescent heartbreaker, though cramped, loved the isolation.
Speed traps, speedy biker, ear-splitting emergency vehicles, pelicans;
and a swift breeze upon a chilly-sunburn covered up with a soft blanket and cozied up to grandma (of course this is the nine year old).
Trip back as the GPS constantly pushed us farther from home, not in miles but in minutes and hours. But the miles moved quicker than a remembered icestorm where I couldn’t get home (only 10 minutes away), so like all long travel, the kids got their first taste, and survived.
So much to say, but signing off…
Categories:
riptides, travel,
Form:
Narrative
Weightlessness
My soul floats "along with the thunder,"
Saturated with impending rain,
Scattered back throughout the earth,
Lost among ancient ruins and countless seas.
I awaken, feeling hollowness within my quivering heart.
Frantically getting dressed,
The front door blows open—
Listening to its siren's call.
Piece by fragile piece, I must absorb it back into my mortal coil.
Hike through deadly nightshade-tangled forests,
Sleep amongst somber bones in graveyards of contrition,
Push through arid, combusting deserts,
Swim through the waters of paranoia—
Riptides of mentholated melancholy.
Watch as the embers of dawn settle into the ashes of dusk.
Build a golden pyre upon the jaded shale,
Lay my weary bones on the cleansing flames,
Until I rise anew from the ashes,
Never again to be confined within corroded psychosocial cages.
Categories:
riptides, deep, gothic, grave, imagery,
Form:
Free verse
Our Robin’s nest on twenty-eighth bayside,
strung like the Kite’s Loft display.
Free and now flowed with the tide,
as we watched the sunrise of each day.
Center courts of youth and bouncing Penns
pushed full throttle jet skis into romances.
The moon lit footprints in amends,
as Hope laid us down with chances.
The sun’s vixens sat on boardwalk benches,
their penthouses held one night Seacrets.
Tired of searching for pearls in surf’s trenches,
an open air preacher passed out leaflets.
Dice throws into Fate and riptides,
doused by sea foam and sand bars.
Eastern block girls ran carousel rides,
their accents glazed smiles and fast cars.
Ribeye’s and tuna steaks on the grill,
Harbor Island’s slow gas dock --
a seventy-foot fishing boat it couldn’t fill.
Canvas Sperry’s dried on a sundial clock.
The one Turtle that sat near Jamestown,
looking up and down coastal highway.
The Greenest oasis we could find in uptown,
seagulls carried her eggs far away.
To days fully lived and expressed.
To what was held and what transcends.
To goodbyes and route fifty going west.
To that summer and all the friends.
--------------------------------------------------
Contest: Memories of the Sea
Sponsor: Isaiah Zerbst
05.14.15
Categories:
riptides, beach, beauty, drink, friendship,
Form:
Quatrain
Life is like river
with a constant flow
death dealer and life giver
in its murky waters we grow
not much of a forgiver
cold riptides can drag you below
but be strong and don't shiver
the current is worth fighting
more then you know...
love and hate both in its quiver
life can take a turn as it bows
not much of a forgiver
learn to roll with its blows
no one knows whats downriver
and only time shows
Just remember...
life is like a river
it constantly flows
Categories:
riptides, life,
Form:
Carpe Diem
From beneath foam and spray, where the
Sun light never penetrates, in fathom's chilly forbidden
Realm lies a kingdom of golden coral reefs.
Poseidon’s children of the murky depths dwell, in liberation's
Untamed wilderness of the unknown.
Mermaids and mermen living in this aquatic domain,
Of the evergreen's seaweed jungle, a lost paradise
Hidden under the big blues stormy seas.
Titan's sons and daughters, freedom’s enlightened
Spiritual unbound souls, rejoice in essences elegance,
In these sacred waters of the bluest deep.
Swimming acrobate of the brimmy mists, enchantments
Beguiling sirens sing an ancient mystical tones lullaby,
Tempting the land dwellers. to cast aside their earthen
Tethers, daring them to plunge under the tidal surf.
To death’s splendor of silence, and yet for one moment’s
Single breath held, to experience the ultimate beauty,
Known only to these creatures of the immortal deep.
In purity's crystal clear thoughts, uncluttered by the ideas
Of humanity, instinctual beings living completely without
Boundaries restrictions.
Loving spirits, children of joys innocence, reveling
In exhilaration secret garden, in this timeless bubble,
Beneath theses mystic waves of blue.
Behold the natural wonder called the great barrier reef,
Where creatures of myth, playfully frolic, in a tag team
Match of hide and go seek, weaving, dodging through
A seaweed forest of tidal riptides divides.
Sleek mere creatures of the oceans
Tidal tribes, banding together to survive.
Dancing in sequence with the waves turning motions.
Singing forgotten songs in tender under tones,
Sweet melodies to one another.
Beauty in contrast in such wondrous currents
Of mythology.
Do they really exist who knows, but in the soul of
Wonderment, I believe they do, these the mermaids,
Of the deepest blue.
Categories:
riptides, beautiful, fantasy, imagination, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse