Best Shell Poems
She held a seashell to her ear
But heard no soothing sea,
Just choking gasps of life caught in
An ocean of debris.
05.11.19
Bite Size Poem No.38 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Line Gauthier
sea's sound in the breeze
captured in a pretty shell. . . .
nature's gift to me
lying on my bed
holding music to my ear. . . .
I drift out to sea
For Brian Strand's
VERSE any theme/form max of 8 lines Poetry Contest
Tossed upon blank beaches
like men without souls,
shell fragments littering the sand.
Each broken shell once could sing
lyrics lilting of glories past,
tales spun in Dresden colors,
soft, shimmering memories -
blissful days beneath shining seas.
In broken men who walk the earth,
vignettes I view . . .
shattered beauty every one.
Copyright, August 3, 2014
Faye Lanham Gibson
I am a sea shell
exotic and rare
delicate, luminescent
beyond compare
I once was a home
for a creature so tiny
who hid in my depths
protecting her hiney
For she was so lovely
she gleamed and she shined
that she would've been eaten
in that tasty sea brine
But I gave her long life
in my hard purple shell
no one knew she was there
(or they couldn't quite tell)
And I loved her so much
that I named her Ariadne
and fed her tiny bits
of juicy sea debris
'Though she died long ago
and no longer is here
you can still hear her spirit
if you hold me to your ear
The old wood framed home stood stark and abandoned, a
shell of herself, where now new homes were standing..
Rotted roped windows wept with the rains and rattled and
trembled with each passing train..
The once solid foundation now unmoored by silt causing the
aged house to lean, a precarious tilt..
Yet inside her ancient bones still chiseled and grand with her
high molded ceilings and oak floor plans.
For over a hundred years she was home, haven, shelter, thru
cold winter storms and hot summer swelters.
Many years had passed and her families moved on.
She stands out of place where she once so belonged.
Strolling the beach one day, a magnificent shell I happened to see.
I picked it up and held it to my ear - just out of curiosity -
To see if the old wives tale was true that it could speak to me!
Behold! 'Tis true! What fantastic tales it spewed forth from the sea!
I heard waves lapping gently against a sailboat as through the sea it tore,
And the mighty roar of breakers crashing upon a distant shore!
I eavesdropped on a pod of gossiping whales cruising at their leisure,
And I could swear I heard phantom pirates arguing o'er lost treasure!
I heard the battles' roar of mighty armadas in their quest for victory,
And the screams of heroic men slipping 'neath the waves to spend eternity!
I heard the groan of majestic ships breaking apart plunging to the deep.
I even heard the final SOS of the Titanic before it took its tragic leap!
I heard the chanting of old sea dogs as they plied the bounding main,
And their pleas for God's mercy as they sailed his treacherous domain!
I heard the wind shrieking through the rigging of the dashing Cutty Sark,
As she sped through the Roaring Forties, those straits so very startk!
I was startled to hear sergeant major fish count cadence as if on parade,
And the amorous beckoning coo of a charming, yet illusive mermaid!
Could it be that these mysterious things I heard were just an aberration?
Perhaps, but what a change from my boring cell phone communication!
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
© All Rights Reserved
I am the Shell of a POET, Gazing upon my Last Sunset : Dancing with Death
The Shell of a POET, absorbed in Nature: inhaling whispers with my last breath
I cloak myself in HER Tapestry : Azure Blue painted Lovingly; with Life Rose Pink
I sleep in sweet hues of colors as the Serenity of Sunset draws me nigh; I Think
I see the Darkness envelope me as Venus "The Evening Star" Blinks a Loving Wink
As the cricket hums of Glory as a sky of ebony descends upon My Dark Memories
As the night becomes Alive the Reborn "Shell" Reads the History of his Destinies
Mesmerized by the Autroscities, by the pain and sorrows of Mankinds sordid Past
Tears of Humility flow the contours of my cheek as Autroscities of a distant Past
Immortalized by My Cold and Blacken Heart, Forgotten are the Memories of Lenore
I stand at the Pearly Gate in AWE of the Magesty of Eons of Eternity: FOREVERMORE
I grasp HIS Hand; Lenore Grippes Mine : We Entwine as ONE : Through Heaven's Door
to be Cont.
Inspired by the Contest : " Let's Be Open " Sponsored by Xegrakio POETESS : SuZ D
Dedicated to the Souls in Glory waiting for thier Loved Ones
This is not an Entree as I was to late for the Contest. LOVE ALWAYS and FOREVER
YOUR Liege...Harry
He paces steadily in the ash of evening
while a neck cranes to watch the darkness fall:
an armor on his back hardens amidst
the chatter of leaves at the far end
of a sea where danger waits.
Through a haze, a fearless turtle
stands guard against the rage of winds;
his beaded eyes cautiously
scanning predators as flowers bend
for comfort of night’s droning hum.
Displaying an ancient legacy, he traverses
the mossy dune with shell and flippers
kneading stealthily in cunning motion…
oh, bearer of water and earth
evolves like a mystical ninja turtle
carrying the load to find a jeweled star.
Cyndi MacMillan's Free Verse- Turtle Contest
by nette onclaud
I'm aware that
They'll dare me to surrender when my burner's unkindled
And the barrel is empty
Since their whiskey is missing
But it's in our blood and baby it's trickling and
We're on a roll
I heard from her and her merciless curves
That the curse'll come first
Just 'fore the rebirth
It's a thought that gets lost when you pitch it with a cross
O'er a plate made of moss so
I'll name it Shell from Sawed-Off
As I paint Hell from Far-Off
Like the Seraphim cherishing the heart
Who can't turn from the art
Like embarrassing a perishing enemy
Yeah, one last taunt
When told to listen as though it'd fix it
Something went missing
Although I didn't miss it
A relation on a ship quite distant and
Slightly free
Where the ocean switched and the compass died instantly
Oh it's in our blood, baby we're tricky so now
Out that ship has sailed
Like the Seraphim cherishing the shark
Who can flip 'round the ark
Like embarrassing a perishing enemy
Yeah, one last taunt
And our sweat is slightly trickling
A whiskey business, the highest feeling
And the pressure is highly tricky
A risky business, a godly healing
I wanted to be alone tonight,
to shuffle my thoughts in the ocean's breeze,
when the sun sets sail, with the lights going out
While I search the sky, in my solitude
and ponder my place in the scheme of things...
I wonder again, how I fit within...
How the dreams I dream, and my many wiles,
fit into the human chain
In my lone meditation, there rises a sigh
with a windswept aria, reaching my ears......
while one turtle I had noticed, is unmooring itself,
heading back to the ocean, without hesitation
not asking for much, not even for reason why
I watch him slowly swagger along, no rush to marry a shell with the sea
And envy how strong the urge can be, knowing his place in the throng
His cares are so few, and with years to go, such tenacity captures me
I wanted tonight, to be alone with thoughts, alone to doubt
alone with my questions, and alone with my fears
To hover in the shell, in the cave of my tears
To ponder my place here among the stars.....
Of time and space, the archaic shores
Unmooring myself, across the sands
If the turtle can see it, then I'm not alone
in this span of a life, there is a journey long...
a destiny that the nomad just knows
__________________________________
7/28/14 For Cyndi's Contest: "Turtles"
DO NOT STAY GENTLE INTO THAT SHELL
Do not stay gentle into that shell,
Old age and death sails to snatch your day;
Wake up against the quenching bell,
For many will think the dark is theirs to sell,
Because time has failed to open the heap of their bay,
Do not stay gentle into that shell.
Great men with great talent, now the wail in hell,
If they had had, the legacies would in silence pray,
Wake up against the quenching bell,
Wise men, who had their gifts in use and so well,
And now too late, they’ve chided with grief on way,
Do not stay gentle into that shell.
Grave men, rot with these gifts, I’m sorry to tell,
With great minds and ideas not heard, what I have to say,
Wake up against the quenching bell.
And you my comrades, with gifts and wisdom, I quell,
Pull out and do the unimaginable now and not to play,
Do not stay gentle into that shell,
Wake up against the quenching bell.
Carcass evens out sand
Skin lands in your hands
Push past tainted smiles for better lands
Call me
When we reach the peak of boiling
and I've sweat out all my provisions
I'll answer
No need to memorize nonsense
in your numbers stead
I will always know your name
And it plays like the knocking of two outside a manger
There is nothing holy here
but lessons taught in down times
And so I practice dance for ballrooms I will never tread
You have never and will never see me
Call me
and I'll tell you how it's supposed to go
and you can teach her, them
It's too pretty outside to lose my mind
but you have it
Blow heat on kerosene and burn down your own monument
I'm tired
Should you carry me, sweet fancy,
Only to descend flat into the ground?
Ashamed, I bear you now
Upon my weary shoulder - the shell of your frame
Ashamed of my name
Ashamed to the grave
March 21, 2015
I am the shield that has protected this soul,
the armor of flesh that has yet kept it whole
I am the vessel that has carried it so far,
the legs and the feet that have trod where we are
I am the walls within which it's dwelt,
the roof and the floors on which it has knelt
I am all these things and yet I am naught
I am corporeal, not immortal and will soon be forgot
I am but a husk, just a layer of skin,
the flesh and the blood and the guts here within
I am but a mask, no more than a veil,
for what's carried inside to the end of the trail
I am but a casing, a covering at best,
destined to rot and decay with the rest
I am not all of this man; I am merely his shell
I carry no weight; I but wait for a bell
‘Turn swords into ploughshares and nightmares to dreams’
I have not one plough and no shares in the market
Insomnia has taken over my nights the rest is illusion
Ambitions are exhausted and hope has no yearning
Freedom dangles on the rope of puppet-less strings
Vacuum reflects an echo of silent ear bursting rasping
Dissonance oozes from cacophony’s apathetic rattle
The heavy clanger of other’s fraudulent forge melts disowned blood
Into ice in my veins as a purulent mind oozes vile battles' cries
Muted by trench feet scraping bottomless mind-fields and apathy
‘Pull yourself out of catatonia’s core-less pits’
But there is no kernel of truth and fruits of desire have rotted
To the acrid stench of a Self carefully lost on broken branches
Snapped composure looms over a well-trodden treacherous path
Carved into an involuntary hermit’s cave by a cliff edged road side
It is grave in the cavern in which vacant vagrants jumble their bones
Disconnect their last possession and wilfully trade skulls and bones
‘This too shall pass and so many others have been stuck in the rot’
And yet suffocation in some muddy sludge is sinking
Slowly and excruciatingly tempting to join forces of evil
A dark rusty anchor floats high on the unreachable ceiling
Time I have endless measures of but the world is upside down
I am out of the picture that has faded memories for the future
Dislodged and dismembered I am a powerful union of nothing
‘Change your perspective and find solace where it is hidden’
So he who is I from the distance finally lets go of unwarranted grip
Descends as far from the surface as possible beyond expectations
And finds footing of the shackles where the ploughshare should be
The spikes pierce my soles and my soul ostensibly drowned in sorrow
At least there is pain and some place in between scars to feel emotions
That tentatively nurture rescue apparently beyond impossible salvation
‘Your advice seemed hollow but there is some loving space left inside my shell’
29th November 2019