Where South China waters churn heavy and wide,
A widow rose up with the ocean's own tide.
No emperor’s decree could govern her hand,
She ruled forty thousand across sea and land.
Her laws were of iron, her word absolute—
No plunder unshared, and no thief with his loot.
With hundreds of junks bearing canvas of red,
The empires of Europe beheld her with dread.
The Qing and the Portuguese launched their attack,
Yet her fleet in the bay drove the battle-line back.
She outfought the crown and she outmaneuvered the state,
Till they offered her peace at the emperor's gate.
She surrendered her sails, but retained all her gold,
A pirate supreme who grew peaceful and old.
Though dynasties crumbled and admirals fell,
The terror of Canton lives on in the swell.
Her three tall masts pierce through the gray,
Where swells of sapphire rise and fall;
She rides the deep in grand display,
Answering the high sea's wild, cold call.
Her canvas full, each sail blown tight,
Stretched firm beneath a heavy breeze,
She carves her way with graceful might,
Across the rolling, restless seas.
With rhythmic ease, the waters swell,
And lift her dark frame toward the sky,
While white-capped crests surrounding tell
Of rolling deeps as she glides by.
From high atop the crow’s nest railing,
A lookout spots gray shadows near—
A pod of whales, majestic, sailing
Beside the hull without a fear.
At helm stands Captain Jack, steadfast,
His weathered hand upon the wheel,
Reflecting on her storied past
And every seam of iron and steel.
Born in the fires of sea-bound lore,
Rebuilt from ash, reclaimed from fate,
The Black Pearl haunts the coast once more,
A ghost of legend, proud and great.
I professorially , perceptively
unofficially
noiselessly spoke
that addlepated
moldy merchantman
would pass
through foaminess
with volumetrically
unretrievable moonshine
and sunberry fodder
for bungarus
his puppyish
impracticable tantrum
impeccable monotonous drone
rowdy crescendo
a classic companion dither
could they brainwash
this opposer ?
but lukewarm normalcy
will not obstreperously come .
okay !
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • September 14–20, 2026)
Sail away with me, my darling, to distant lands
leave the past behind us while we still can
Dare it to catch us, ever onward sail
this small vessel ~ our everlasting jail
I was out at sea in a fishing boat,
fishing in calm waters;
standing, I held a rod,
longing for the tug on the line
at the baited hook.
And as I stood there,
I saw everything around me suspended
like an image within a frame;
the white flight of a gull in the air,
the sun’s bright reflection on the water,
the boat’s intoxicating sway upon the foam—
all within the same frame.
At one point, the line was pulled taut,
and the world changed in an instant:
the seagull vanished into the northerly wind,
the sun hid behind the clouds,
the sea turned turbulent,
the fishing boat tossed like a walnut shell on the waves,
and—with such stubbornness—
I struggled to stay upright, clutching my rod.
And as I battled the wild waves,
holding the rod with all my might
against the pull of the line,
suddenly the boat soared like a seagull—
a white sail fluttering where wings should be—
yet, with such stubbornness,
I still held fast to the rod,
fishing for dreams
in the open sea of the frame.
Sailing home to England
o'er the bounding main
oh to see those white cliffs
fields of green and feel the rain again
sailed away for a year and a day
an albatross following t'was a good sign
with wings wide-spread overhead
'tween tropics weather was fair all was fine
sailors know where the trade winds blow
and trust their compass true
but my days a'roving the briny deep are now done
I'm rolling down a rhumb line arc to you
I once heard a warning from a sailor:
"Don't look at the ocean at night—the darkness offers an escape."
I wonder if it is the same for a soldier staring down a gun barrel.
As they run through dark trenches, fleeing death,does that cold metal cylinder promise a release?
An end to fear.The death of anger.
Or a quiet peace brought to a desolate land.
Many wonder, staring straight into that deep ocean of unforgiving quiet.
But peace demands a price in an empty country.
It means
a mother you will never see,
a wife you will never love,
a child you will never guide—
only eyes wandering a horizon that never ends.
But the sailor never taught me what remains unseen:
the sea always stares back.
It cannot feel your agonizing rage.
It does not share your lonely sadness.
It has no thought of family or friends.
Instead, it only waits for you to jump, and find your peace.
Caribbean adventure await
Searching for the legendary amber diamond
Sealing one's fate
All packed ready mate
Emotions tingle about the mining
Caribbean adventure await
Taking the challenging bait
Swimming the ocean depths long and winding
Sealing one's fate
Discovered below great timing
Get your facts straight
Caribbean adventure await
Sipping tropical beverages on a date
Grateful, discovering the financial chiming
Sealing one's fate
Fool's river panhandling dining
Until someone yells, wait
Caribbean adventure await
Sealing one's fate
breathless hush
Beyond dreams
with candlelight burns
Lives cross lives idling
Beyond souls emptiness'
piano speaks
'It's all in one mind'
the trees listening
for they are one
with the universe
Eyes smell flowers and become them
There's a deathless hush tonight
tidal wave sweeps in
breathes and sinks all lights lit
Mormon tabernacles washed away like barnacles
Coyotes are confounded & swim nowhere
An orchestra keeps on playing Handel's Water Music
Horns fill with water float away like lovers horizontal
Loop becomes a rollercoaster
like water glasses mixed with Buddhist brine
watered down beer topped with sea foam
Beau Fleuve suddenly become salt
buried masts of Amsterdam arise
the great wave sweeps
to wash away over-age Camembert
steaming in sea-vines
the washed land awakes again to wilderness
the only sound a vast thrumming of crickets
a cry of seabirds high over
and Indians reclaim their canoes
(Blackout of Wild Dreams Of A New Beginning
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti)
Sailing the seas on a lyrical sloop,
visiting pensmen in a metrical loop
with alternating laughs and sighs,
I smile and realize
the sun never sets on PoetrySoup.
In every time zone, in every land,
shining on each seashore's sand,
a seashell or a nautilus
sings to amuse or slaughter us,
from a poet, awake, pen in hand.
LAKE
I want to rent a house on a lake
I want it to be quiet, a simple house,
But
I want it to have a dock and maybe a
Rowboat or canoe. Either is OK.
I don’t want there to be any motors,
Or a busy lake
I want to be able to jump into the lake
And swim under the water and look up
and see the light coming through the water
I want to see a spider walk on the
Surface of the water.
Just because they can
Oh, there will be a little fish darting.
And I want to
Just swim around where it’s a little murky,
And I’ll see just a flash of their lives.
At night I can go out in the boat
And listen to the Silence.
Maybe some bats fly by
Hopefully, it will be cloudless
And the sky will be full of stars
That is my wish
Cadre, thou art quincurion.
Five pointed star says sight, scion.
One in the center, mighty strong.
Four on the sides to greet the throng.
Clamber right o'er that wall, burglar.
Prize in thy eyes, shoot past the par.
Combination lock, face of safe.
O machine gunner, time to strafe.
Quinnat, move thy force in quinnet?
Pincer formation wins the bet.
However, salmon, wedge has wings.
Beware the spinneret. It stings.
Coalacanth, in the glassy lake.
Life is a rogue with thirst to slake?
Turmoil and trial? Fresh ocean blue?
Red rabbit, river, run straight through.
Quoddity, haunt the quadlibet?
Placard, plinth alabaster. Yet:
Relevance, where do you stake claim?
Pertinent, prosper. Fling, O flame.
Entelechy, thy entalpy.
Reason, heat up and sing in me!
Tangle, my thought-spark! Lightning falls!
Blistering broadsides by the balls!
Salve of diviner, vision weird.
Cel animation leered and jeered.
Alien skies and faces strange.
Jagged pulsation, range the change.
Electric shock, fire furious eyes.
Bring back the bolt that fastest flies.
Whirlpool, hum and whir. Broken bow.
Whippoorwill, swallow, undertow.
BOAT
BOAT
floats on
swift water
childhood adventure
that cheers up now,as then
the memories of the past
"The memories of golden years"
BLUE HOUSE
I want a blue house that looks like a
Giant Bird House with a book case that
Spins around to another room where I can
Store a broom
A house that has cuckoo clock living room
A kitchen with a dining room and two first floor
Bed rooms and more rooms down stairs including a
Laundry room
It has to float on a large river even on a Chilly day
Be tied to a dock and include a small motor boat
Or even a sail boat and there must be a small garden
Along with a garage in which I can do projects
I need a traditional mailbox and a place to hang socks
Fishing equipment and fish to catch in addition to a reliable
Refrigerator and an oven in a nice rodent free kitchen along with
Loving cat
moonlight
cascades
over the falls
landing on the boat
covered, floating
in the ebonic sea breeze
I am in there
so are you
if you so choose
both sleeping
something about
Hawaii
unhurries the heart
waits for
floating leis
lazily drifting
in the ebb and flow
of forever after
Boat Categories
Definition | What is Boat in Poetry?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.
Related Poetry Forms
dinghy, canoe, sailboat, yacht, craft, barge, raft, ship, catamaran, schooner, bottom, hulk, launch, skiff, bucket, bark, ark, gondola, lifeboat, ketch, steamboat, dory, pinnace, scow, sloop, tub, bateau,