Best Shorebirds Poems

I saw a one-legged Sandpiper
today on the beach.
I saw him land on his single pedestal,
it was an artful thing.

Entranced by his disability,
I stood transfixed with curiosity.
I so wanted to help him
but we're worlds apart.

How can he feed?
How can he fend?

Suddenly, he flew away up the...

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The hyacinth stood on the dusking rise,
cerulean the waters did traverse,
the reeds consenting daylight to the skies
as pewter stones recited lapis verse.

The burning pyres of sunlight floated west
untouched by orchid mountains in the mist,
the periwinkle shadows did invest
in rising to the lingering deep kiss

by weeping...

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windswept clumps of grass 
beach scattered with broken shells~ 
gulls lift on currents 

sandpipers feed along 
beach scattered with broken shells~ 
tiny legs twinkle 

shorebirds feeding on 
the tides endless offerings~
tiny legs twinkling 

each day it changes
the tides endless offerings~
waves wash shifting sand

changing on each...

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Written: May 2nd, 2024

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Quixotic quest quiddity
As dusk sapidity emerges, 
Casting a shadow 
Weeping waves smash 
in foamy scatters; 
seraphic strophic sojourn 
groans in a gossamer gaunt
Arid shadows fade. 
In a hazy blur, 
emptiness lingers. 
Shorebirds...

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I watch them on the beach -
shorebirds they are called
running here and there.
Residents of land more than the air,
they'd rather poke their beaks into the sand
probing for morsels of tasty crustaceans.
Pecking, always pecking,
scrambling to and fro,
they're focused, ever focused
on the job at hand.

Not especially strong,...

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"Salvage"


Salvage the fixating salvation 
unfurling from the wreckage
of a numb world twisted inside
treasure climbs swimming 
the ladder from the deep of all things 
reaching upwards travelling in a new time
of melting morpheme moments overlapping 
dissolved differences, tight discrepancies peppering the salt stings 
something honest and...

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Baby birds, it's said, are born not knowing 
their notes. They learn them from their mother's 
throats in the way children learn their ABCs 
at parental knees, muh muh muh becoming mother, 
da da da, daddy; cheep cheep cheep, a cantata.
That being so, do poets...

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I walk barefoot on the beach
Where the water greets the land.
Waves with their wet fingers reach,
Then retreat from where I stand.
White foam fizzles on the sand.

I pick up some rocks and shells,
Watch the shorebirds dive and fly
As the ocean ebbs and swells,
Plovers skitter, seagulls cry,
Soundless...

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UndefeaTed.  A Boxing Lesson.

A friend, off the Vineyard,
wrighted a ship.
And, perhaps himself,
and certainly the worlds ‘round him.
His words were fashioned, shipshape and watertight
as were the splines and bungholes and rudder pins and
All the Things I didn’t know what they were.
All the Things I didn’t...

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on my top
fishermen carved trail
sow spirit steps 
whispered roar of expectations
Away empty- handed
back with results
destiny is there
however
smile
with udder waves
saw
things were never the same
everything changed

my white face
a holy canvas
lovers painted
pure love
browsed the pace of beautiful life
danced with white froth
hand in hand
meaningful
and confidence
revealed the meaning of love
saw
that...

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State of the Nation


Nature unchaste,
river waste drifts;
distasteful scene. 

Shorebirds in flight,
gray and white gulls;
despite foul winds.

Mercury fear;
poison-smeared fish
make dreary food.




*January 29, 2019
For Charles Messina’s Than-Bauk Contest...

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Colors of leaves in autumn weave a lovely quilt

covering the countryside, woods, and waters

falling like snowflakes from the tallest of trees

lighting the forest like a candelabra until the first snow.

She was there by the pond painting the weeping willows;

She never spoke a word, just watched...

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Written: February 14, 2025 for Brian Strand Contest

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In twilight,  specks become stars,  
bridges locked in gold,  
Engraved whispers on walls...

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Dear shorebirds, my quills inspiration.
I love the way you're chased by the ripples
Ceasing my days and nights isolation
Dreams of the coast; I smile just a little.

Let me watch you as you bob and wiggle
You're much quieter during winters chill
The sea fogs hide the highest tides...

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“In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, when birds do sing . . . sweet lovers love the spring.” -William Shakespeare

In early spring they reappear -
the shorebirds and the swallow.
Ducks, geese, red-winged blackbirds,
owls and eagles follow.

April brings more of the same
with woodpeckers and...

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