Best Shanty Poems
One fine day I was fishing at sea
Two big blue whales swam up by me
They flicked their tails sent up a spray
All I could do was watch and pray
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
I'm not afraid of a big blue whale
I'll put a harpoon in its flickering tail
When seas get rough from a blowin' gale
Just pour me another swig of ale.
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
I'd cut my hand and the blood ran free
Three fins appeared ready for their tea
Then from nowhere I heard a shout
"Grab the rope we'll get you out".
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
They hauled me in and saved my neck
I was a soggy heap upon their deck
I was perished they gave me rum
Felt a warm glow in my tum.
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
The sails went up they made for shore
Made a vow to myself the sea no more
Now I'm a crofter working on dry land
And ne'er again see sea or sand.
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
After five months I was longing to be
Back in the boat fishing out at sea
A landlubbers life was not for me
On the water I was free.
They kept flicking and sank my boat
I'm now in the water and here I float
If no one is around to save my life
Then a widow she'll be, my wife.
The credit for the third verse goes to Jenna Logan.
Written 31st January 2021.
The sea
that surrounds this narrow land
floats its salted scent across
on a misted wind.
It calls to us,
a rolling song
of a thousand voices,
swallowed
by its merciless depths.
They chant a crashing chorus
of ships and sails,
prayers and fishing nets,
protesting
their watery fate—
as if to affirm
their seafaring souls,
which are never lost,
but summon their
earthly brothers
to the shore.
The sea gathered her voice
on the crest of the waves
as dark clouds were herded
by the wind as he raved
in a symphony orchestrated
through elements of sound
composed by the air
from his drafty compound.
By the drum of the surf
on the beat of the waves
a crescendo that climbed
with the sea as she raged
while the wind as the maestro
pulled pockets of sound
from the whistles and moans
as he swept ‘cross the ground.
Soprano! cried the killdeer
Tenor! screeched the gulls
as a baritone foghorn
boomed from the hull
of a ship that swayed
drunkenly atop of the surf
staying clear of the breakers
that crashed on the turf
The ship creaked a response
as it groaned a refrain
but the deft hand of a shipwright
would keep it sustained
for he’d hewn and he’d whittled
great emblems of love
carving an angel for the figurehead
and atop the masthead, a dove.
When the wind stopped his jostling
and the sea spent her ire
the ship slipped back to its haven
of warm hearths and bright fires
where the men mused and wondered
over great tankards of ale
if the hymns and hosannas..
had been but, the wind in the sails?
Murderers and rapists they all be
Vlad Putins scumbags, his army
They should all be hung from a tree
For all the world to see. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
In close combat Russians can't fight
Despite their superior military might
They kill men, women and little children
Because it makes them feel like men. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
The murdered victims they tried to hide
Then tried to blame the Ukrainian side
Reporters have filmed and they have seen
Now Ukraines a giant crime scene. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
Weapons are being sent from the West
That will put those scumbags to the test
But they'd better get them over there fast
Or Ukraines defenders won't last. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
The Russians had hoped for a victory
Then Ukraine sunk their ship in the Black sea
It was the great pride of the Black sea fleet
And it put their navy in retreat. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
Putin said nuclear and caused us alarm
It seems he'd like to wish us all harm
But he is paranoid and is not so tough
And the west should call his bluff. (huh)
(Chorus)
They bombed cities and towns as well
And made the landscape look like hell
The Russians claimed it was only a drill
But it's their excuse to kill.
Written on 22nd April 2022.
As they were sailing ‘cross the ocean deep
They watched the sunrise and the diving grebe.
When up in the top, the lookout did spy
A storm advancing, with his weather eye.
The helmsman heeded the word from above
And steered the walty gal forth at a scud.
Night tide came fast and they were flooded by dark,
The waves surged and the salty, sea dogs barked.
The raw wind cut and the rain assailed down,
As men pooled together to fight off the drown.
The dodger succumbed, and the foremast fell
The ship was immersed in the maritime hell.
As dawn broke, with only waveson afloat.
The ocean had seized another game boat.
Good men will be mourned, and the tempest damned,
We left to ponder why they left dry land.
Universal Sea Shanty; or, The Generic Folk Song
Sailing with potatoes
Sailing with potatoes
Sailing with potatoes
The perfect Irish jig.
The dead of children's eyes burn through the soul,
their hunger tears the heart from its cavity.
Cheeks sunken as skin hangs from the bone,
their out stretched arms crying for deliverance.
You would weep, if not for your crusted sockets,
for moisture is a cherished commodity.
From opulence and prosperity, we are left to scavenge
barren fields for spoiled fruit and wilted leaves.
These few morsels are to be our only subsistence.
This crash has laid waste to our destitution.
Each day emulates the last,
as do the cars rumbling along the rails
past this desolate hovel town.
A Sea Shanty!
Mother call your children home,
put them in their beds.
Tell them stories of better times,
and try to fill their heads.
Give them dreams of yesterday,
and promises for tomorrow,
but bless them, Lord, as they sleep,
and take away their sorrow.
Jeff the crewman, singing at the wheel of the Maid...
heading for the Island of Edinburgh, home of Zirconia
The captain of the times a dragon's flood If all the lies were so true - refrain While darkening the Spaniard’s main blood I’d be the richest how ‘bout you – refrain Riches untold they write their own code Taking , raking, staking the shadowy gold With the lord of shadow’s face on the rum Morgan and the devil are on a cut and run Where lines are blurred and things are heard Winning is the word and Polly is the only bird I know this is what you do with the drunken sailor Dress 'em up as a tailor make’em a legend’s wailer Sing songs of wealth, power and too good to be true As the empty soldier is paying the devil his deep blue
Set your willy on fire boys,
set your willy on fire
Dance and sing and hop and scream
and set your willy on fire.
I wish I was everything to you
And if I was everything to you
How would that look too
Would you judge everything I do
Would you take everything I do in your heart
Would you love my wicked ways just for you
Would you accept me if I tried to open your life
If that would be all that I would be
Then would I be everything to you
That would make us live in heaven
Where I would cherish you above all else
Where I would shower you with God's love
And show you heaven where all things are
If you accepted me as everything
You would be everything to me.
Love eternal is the way to go.
2. "over the waters blue the night winds sigh, the breakers roar ... Samual Taylor Coleridge
Wailing wind amid strongest ocean storm
Night falls swiftly on tumultuous scene
Sailors aware for they have been well-warned
This is their reality not a dream.
Through long hours before sun ordains to rise
Neptune's wrath bombards with no sign of grace
Mariners strong, elements they defy
Lighthouse aids battle and fear is erased.
As ocean's tantrum slowly does abate
Sunrise breaks through the darkest of dark night
Yet, sailors' love of ocean 'tis innate
Phlegmatic, fearless men removed from fright.
You spit your salty spite at me
Like I'm all who's ever err'd
A few times before, I've swam at sea
I don't jump in unprepared
So watch your kegs and cannonballs
'Fore another goes around
For I have broken masts and walls
Still yet have never drowned
Hung up when Davey Jones' called
And laughed at the tolling bell's sound
day ends in a shanty town
When crossing the bridge to the shanty town
The day was almost over, blank and tired
and due to pollution, the light on the bridge had a hue of aureate
The huts in the township were utterly miserable
consisted of bricks, stones, plywood and corrugated iron
were the roof of all the shacks
a roof that keeps out the rain but bursts your eardrums
In small spaces in the back of hovels, women were preparing the evening meals
How can people live here, washing on a line said it was possible
Children ran around playing cowboys& Indians
for them, poverty was a word that did not exist as long as they got fed.
The night came suddenly to the tune of music from a transistor radio
the night belonged to yellow cures and rats
It's very very very interesting to note that a seal in a barber shop can ask specifically for creases to be designed. And floors could be harbours. So how many boats? Yes, this is indeed the question asked by many fish. Escaping is their daily fun time. Playing with watery waves. No waterproofs. No tidal splurge. Blatantly ignoring a shrine to a shark. Opuses originally originate octagonally. Whilst cows of coast clap. Wow. Amazingly beautiful number of prancing prawns playing patio polo. Weary are the shells. Title of shells is dynamically driven. Innermost inherited inhabitants inhabit invoking inks. Wow. Trade travelling trademarks trampling. And a voltage grown from a frozen iceberg. 0 degree in a twenty-five knot turn. Wow. Whoop whoop whoop whoop. And the whole clandestine class of clam isn't an issue for a north sea ferry whose antics upon the ocean seem quite amusing to several two foot sea birds who laugh. Plus the world of goo goo goo goo is not a ga ga ga or a gee gee gee. Ok. Yachting seahorse. In a race. Bets are taken by the lobsters. In suits. Always with bow ties. Inclination of salt water then. Good. Have haha today? How comical!!! And now a ship. *** nautical nautilus nautili. Clap clap clap. *** oceanography z