Best Rowing Poems
Written: December 12, 2023
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Twilight swallowed me, striking me speechless
With subtle caress of a wicked breeze
Stirring the surge, I drift inwardly
And wild geese soar home in the sky.
Floating at a low level on a long, rolling skein.
Their banter ruined their afternoon
Friends unified on a familiar trip.
I've seen them ride on the oceans.
Pulling back the waves' white locks.
In the quiet, glassy sea, my skiff barely ripples.
Lavender clouds and double geese.
Random ideas diffuse as waves.
But my ideas act as stars in the sky
Bringing delight with a single chuckle.
Happiness simply cannot be accounted for.
Also, it seems as a wayward child.
Even amid the thrills, sadness arises.
Akin to one drop of rain on quiet waters.
Spread ripples will erase dazzling rays.
With a single echoed plink of its sad note.
Is it worth staying with the wispy Hope scarf?
Then laid across my shoulders?
The light tilts on other days.
That warms the day as a lover's kiss.
And I anchor at home in delightful calm.
Categories:
rowing, analogy, appreciation, friendship, happiness,
Form:
Free verse
Into your boat I found myself venturing, oh life
Rowing against the currents of your afflictions
Many times I thought you wished me to drown
Though you desired to forge my convictions!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
06 October 2015
POTD
Categories:
rowing, character, life,
Form:
Quatrain
The world has turned upside down,
but don't expect me to frown.
I smile for the sun still shines,
and hope's boat will never drown.
STRAND PICK G,ANY THEME,ANY FORM Poetry Contest (Winner: 3rd Place)
Sponsored by Brian Strand
Date written: 04/25/2020
Categories:
rowing, allusion, endurance, hope, life,
Form:
Jueju
Thunderous silence in fresh mountain air
Dragonflies land on a mirrored flat lake.
A trout breaks the surface with but a swirl
Hushed morning stopping to rolling vast cheer.
Eight boats of rowers united in curl
Sixty-four faces combined in their ache
Coxswains urging each stroke with due care.
Rugged peaks fix firm gaze from up high
Each ridge a crease on a wrinkled old face.
Colours camouflaged by tussock and screes
Against this grave setting boats do defy.
Medleys on shore of blushing marquees
Supporting calls surge the rowers fast pace
Crews each pushing for all others to deny.
Canada geese carve the sky in their vee
Graceful wings scooped as they slowly descend.
Almost merging in the landscape behind
Splashes blend as birds land and oars break free.
Rowers increase their methodical grind
While a grand race is nearing its end
Sounds swell as crowds heighten their pleas.
Symbols of an intolerant harsh soil
Grey terraces flank the edge of the lake.
Head down merino ewes quest for their feed
Rowers and sheep joint in differing toil.
Leading boats lunge forward as though freed
Far behind peace returns in their wake
And the triumphant finally uncoil.
20th January 2016
Categories:
rowing, beauty, mountains, nature, sports,
Form:
Rhyme
I remember that we rowed.
You were afraid.
And so, I gave the oars to you,
I thought, you see – control
Would help you feel
It was your boat that moved
Beneath your unsure feet.
And then, I saw your leg, and I liked you!
You laughed, hysterical! You always laughed
When you were afraid.
I… I talked about ‘meaningful relationships’,
But you, as bold as only newness can make a person,
You wanted marriage!
You didn’t mean, with me! Although, you married me!
And now, I’d give a bucketful of suns,
To see you row, again!
Categories:
rowing, boat, cute love, funny,
Form:
Free verse
Pink planet, you saw me dreaming alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a diamond ring of my own.
Pink planet, you knew just what I was there for,
You heard me saying a prayer for,
A diamond ring I really could care for.
And then suddenly appeared before me, the only one my arms could ever hold.
I heard somebody whisper 'hocus pocus'
But when I looked, that planet had turned to a leaky rowing boat!
Oh oh oh...
Pink planet, now I'm no longer alone,
Without a dream in my heart, without a leaky rowing boat of my own.
You better shape up,
'Cause I need a diamond ring,
And instead I got a leaky rowing boat.
You better shape up;
You better understand,
To my heart I must be true.
And this leaky rowing boat and me are through!
We go together,
Like George Bush and Bart Simpson, Like Bart Simpson and George Bush.
Remembered forever,
As condescending condescending condescending smelly-smelly boom de boom de boom.
Well - a well - a well - a huh...
Tell me more, tell me more,
Which came first
Tell me more, tell me more,
Is the leaky rowing boat a joke?
Tell me more, tell me more,
Where is my sodding diamond ring?
Dreaming dreams ripped at the seams, but oh those dreaming nights.
Categories:
rowing, poems, planet,
Form:
Concrete
Rowing through
Life's waters..
Treading against
The tide..
Not stopping
For a moment
Because of
Being tired..
Looking towards
The future..
Energized
And persevered..
Expectations
Along the horizon..
Rowing through..
Into the clear..
07/12/15
D.C.
Categories:
rowing, dedication, endurance, life,
Form:
Rhyme
When I finish the row and
yonder my soul is invited-
for my casket will they lay beneath-
I'll take with me desire.
On the top unseen
where we rule the fate of men,
I'll despise my present state;
O that I could perch and mount.
What a wonder yon!
'Thout tales old and vain,
for all folklore will be actuated,
Charles the Darwin will not be.
That land ashore and blissed,
I'll see no monkey in the lineage;
Adam will contend Darwin sore
Who'll wish he'd no manly essence.
Now is my boat rowing
and the tempest doeth beset;
Of fate and destiny am I tossed,
Drifted on course I rest assured.
Blest assurance, O how sweet this sound!
For that voice I once heard again I hear,
In the upheaval the master beckons,
"It's I, fear not."
Gold and silver have not stumbled me,
I've kept rowing and the master holding,
The trances I have and often inadequacy
Have set my face aflint and numb.
mjs 2015
Categories:
rowing, christian, heaven,
Form:
Verse
Fundamentalist Christians row over piecemeal things,
Over whether baptism is required for heavenly sings,
Over whether baptism is needed for heaven’s welcome,
Over whether baptism is demanded by god to overcome.
I don’t know how many times I was asked about baptism,
Whether I wanted baptised, they didn’t accept my atheism,
I’d stated it to my parents but had a question in my mind,
About whether they’d told my so called friends who’d mind.
But I said no, and explained Christian atheism fair, square,
Didn’t mix my words nor hesitate to extrapolate with air,
But each one said to me I didn’t know my own mind simply,
Which left me very distressed, very much in a quandary.
They were playing the mentally ill card, when I was not,
They wanted to patronise me to chide and see what I’d got,
But I didn’t like it so withdrew from their sphere, company,
Which made me feel better, gave me dignity and harmony.
A stillness with life and a peace about my so uncertain future,
A habit of reading, even if I’d already read them in conjecture,
Since my parents restricted me to only five philosophy books,
In case for researchers and academics, thinkers, I had looks.
A fundamentalist household is not a peaceful one, stable,
But is distressed, fragmented and broken, that’s irrefutable,
You suffer displacement because your atheist leaves you,
To ruminate upon his interjection which is to see you through.
I think it’s better today, atheists in god families have voice,
They can be respected for devious acts of normality, choice,
They can refer to teachers for love, for secularist edification,
And have access to the medical profession for an adulation.
Categories:
rowing, abuse, faith, god, parents,
Form:
Heroic Couplet
The rotting wood below my feet is stroked by the shadow of a chain
Which keeps my hands still, but busy; an agony in unison, afloat.
My mind has learned to drift and wander, many miles away
But the pain always finds a way to intrude, to pierce, to cut.
I hear the crack of the whip, and a scream, and I do not feel a thing.
Again to my silent relief, only seen in my sagging shoulders; it is someone else’s pain,
The constant clap and glide of the oars continues unabated; ‘cept one
As he shudders in a heap, the oar nudging his head; one hundred comforting him.
Our backs face our destination and only the pilot sees the course ahead
Which now waits for us as we rest; for the drum- beat has now ceased…
There is no relief in that workless moment, for our thoughts moan and cry
At the time just ahead, when we will sway and pull and scream
Silently.
But with a roar, the sky shouts and weeps for us, and bolts shoot
Down and silently, missing us against our pleas and prayers.
We do not want to die, but the life we have is no alternative.
For we are dying
Slowly.
The whip cracks, a man weeps, and we all
Shiver.
Categories:
rowing, conflict, discrimination, psychological,
Form:
Free verse
The bus driver and a rowing boat
I remember a song “A slow boat to China”
There was a man a bus driver who took his wife on holiday to Spain
where his wife ran away with a shepherd
The bus driver went home alone but had the house which exploded
(a gas leak) when he sat on the loo; he was unharmed but somewhat
embarrassed. When the insurance money, came he bought a rowing boat
which had a mast and he could set sail when the wind was right.
He landed in Falmouth before the winter storms.
When spring came he rowed and sailed to the island of Neves where
he met John Cleeve, who wrote a funny article about the brave man
and suddenly the bus driver was famous.
The rich people in Neve gave him money which put in a bank
(there are so many banks) when he went to the bank to draw
out money for an ice-cream, he found he was a millionaire.
High finance is a mystery and something had gone wrong
not for him to ask questions, but he did transfer the money
to a Swiss bank and took the first plane back to Europe.
The bus driver is now a prosperous cattle farmer in Andalusia.
Categories:
rowing, absence, blessing, books, break
Form:
Blank verse
Roald Dahl 'The Rowing Song'
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Categories:
rowing, river, sports,
Form:
Shape
While On Boat Rowing
While being on boat, we were rowing;
Wherever we went had been knowing,
Shore is near,
And did appear;
Right beside us are sure God is going.
Jim Horn
Categories:
rowing, allegory, analogy,
Form:
Limerick
Rowing downstream is one of life’s grandest pleasures
while upstream’s difficulty is quite hard to measure
You’ve got to dip those oars in right tight to the boat
and if you're ahead of the current, make sure not to gloat
Categories:
rowing, boat, river,
Form:
Couplet
Stormy seas have hit our bay,
tight fit for words edgeway,
where's the carefree fun and play?
watching every word I say.
This argument, I forget who started,
compassion seems far departed,
to our corners off we darted,
like Red seas that mose's parted.
It pains me to see you act like this,
your forked tongue, it's venomous hiss,
caress hurts away with a kiss,
it's the little things that I miss.
The passions that do alight,
from our feuding silly fight,
made love through the night,
as ******'s peaked in sheer delight,
each other's arms we await the morning light.
©John-Ovan.P.Hull
Categories:
rowing, confusion, girlfriend-boyfriend, lost love,
Form:
Rhyme