Best Riverboat Poems

He plied the Mississippi River on the paddle wheeler 'Dandy Dame'.
Gamblin' was his profession and three-card monte was his game.
He became very creative at palmin'...

Read more of this work...

glare eye to eye
gin ship lie stuck
spent idle lost


11/25/20202


Than-Bauk Me Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: charles messina


A Than-Bauk poem consists of 3 lines.
Each line consists of 4...

Read more of this work...

Lyle Cosgrove had worked the Silver Queen
for two years now, ever since he had left
family drama back in Ohio,
he had simply left his home and...

Read more of this work...

...The two men confirmed Fred went for his gun,
and the captain just let the whole thing be,
Lyle got up and walked out to the deck,
in...

Read more of this work...

Mississippi Moments

History journeys along with its meandering flow as
a wide birth from bank to bank has eyes straining
trying to see across to the other side,...

Read more of this work...

Harvey the Hippo

Harvey is a huge hippopotamus
Who bathes in a bay that is bottomless
HIs mouth is as large as a riverboat barge
And he weighs ten...

Read more of this work...

Powdered Sugar Daydreams 
 
Time becomes invisible, ceasing to matter
as this place in all its magic and wonder
blooms upon the gardens of our imagination,
playing like...

Read more of this work...

I love the child who steers this riverboat,
Though he seems crazy, for the deep.
The river seems dreamlike, in the moonlight--
Someone keeps creeping, in my sleep.
And...

Read more of this work...

porch light midnights
your voodoo kisses
drifting in the fog to
french quarter sidewalks
walking on the ghosts
of southern intimacy

antique balconies with
green wooden shutters
half shadows of you and i
sweet...

Read more of this work...

I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
         ...

Read more of this work...

Take me back to the River,
  To a riverboat ride at night,
Moonlight dancing on the water -
  Glistening diamonds in the light.

Take me...

Read more of this work...

Excitement filled the air as the calliope played
News spread the famed steamboat was near,
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.

The whole town would rush to the esplanade
As...

Read more of this work...

Hanging With The Moon 

Moving to the deep hollow 

rhythm of the double bass 

coupled the with

dance of the piano keys 

and the slow cadence...

Read more of this work...

I sat in a flop house common room
Doing social research one Christmas Eve,
Galveston in '79, I do believe.
I was there in a room full of...

Read more of this work...

I was on the road to hell one day
and then Jesus stopped the bus
He told the devil "you can't have this soul
because she is one...

Read more of this work...