Do you guard the water’s edge,
or watch my vessel glide?
You climb through space, a silent pledge,
to guide the gentle tide.
A voyager of folded sheet,
my crisp white edges free,
where sky and mirrored shadows meet
in quiet harmony.
Without a compass, chart, or strain,
trapped in a fleeting design,
I drift through ripples, rain, and lane,
along a winding line.
And if I soak where waters yield
and sink beneath the clay,
I’ll anchor in a sodden field,
reborn in earth someday.
across the pond my sons paper boats
Feel the Call
I balance on
slimy green rocks
soft salty breeze
mixed with fresh fish scent
tickles my nose
I watch the tide ebb and flow
sail and motor boats
bob and weave at their moorings
like champion horses, itching
to head out to sea
I hear my name deep
inside myself
a gentle whisper tugs
at my heart
beckons me to follow
the tide
to become part of the
endless sea
The Riverside bar by the river Avon
Near the Putney Bridge
I’m watching how the boats keep sailing
Down the water’s edge
There are tourists on the pier
Taking selfies eating ice cream
Locals holding their beers
Talk about Bath cricket team
But I can’t relate to this
Either can’t relate to that
What I am supposed to miss
Never comes into my head
Cause I’m just a good time Charlie
Sort of careless and free
It’s a precious moment, darling
When you smile this way at me..
Each day is a gamble
Even with calculated risks
We make the best decisions possible
We don’t make the best decisions possible
If that makes sense then you’ve been there
Deciding to quell instead of spell
Choosing the steady breath over the sharp truth
Letting the moment pass because speaking felt heavier
And the room felt too small for honesty
It happened on a Tuesday
One of those gray ones where time drags its feet
A conversation you’d practiced in your head
Turned into a nod, a shrug, a swallowed sentence
They waited for the rest of your thought
You let it die between you
Pretending it wasn’t important
Pretending you weren’t unraveling
By nightfall the distance had doubled
Not from anything cruel
Just from what you didn’t say
And when the message finally came
Short, decisive, colder than needed
You reread it until the words turned flat
Knowing the moment you could’ve changed it
Was already several hours behind you
And nothing good was coming back through that door
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
paper boats, folded whispers,
drift where rain and asphalt meet.
streetlight spills on silent journeys,
curbside rivers, slow and deep.
PAPER BOATS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
paper boats float by,
drifting on a summer breeze—
clouds above me dance,
sails of white against the blue,
who sends them racing with me?
Paper boats floating in puddles of water
Every little child’s sweet desire we’d cater
Like paper boats we now float on life’s great ocean
Our great minds carrying our thoughts and notions
But let us travel light and not carry the weight
Or like soaked paper boats will we lose our state
fishing boats in the harbour ~ the watery stillness is deafening
One silly tune was running up and down
It couldn’t find the exit from my head
I let it out when I went downtown
To buy some wine and cumin flavoured bread
The tune came back again, this time around
It sounded more complex to my ears
The sun and shades were playing on the ground
The same old pantomime they do for years
I went under the bridge, and watched the boats
Beside my table they were rolling to and fro
Until I recognized the same old notes
It seems that silly tune had found its home
I leaned back on the bridge's stone cold wall
One silly gull just couldn’t stop complaining
Until I couldn’t hear anything at all
I sat there, and of course, it started raining.
Words flow like liquid starlight,
Spilling from quill to parchment,
Each letter is a paper boat
Sailing on a river of ink.
Thoughts, fragile vessels,
Laden with whispers and dreams,
Navigate the currents of time,
Seeking a distant shore.
Pages rustle like autumn leaves,
Their edges kissed by candlelight,
As emotions, once formless mist,
Crystallise into tangible script.
The reader unfolds each missive,
A cartographer of the heart,
Mapping the contours of love
With every carefully crafted line.
Their correspondence, a tapestry,
Woven with threads of longing,
Each sentence is a brushstroke
Painting souls in vivid hues.
Years pass, a relentless tide,
Yet these paper boats endure,
For love letters, once sealed,
Become time capsules of the heart.
And in the silence between words,
Where meaning transcends language,
Love echoes eternally,
An unspoken poem written in stars.
If the boats had never came and colonisers none
Genocide never happened, wars had not begun,
Darker skin I would have and life I would not fear
If the boats had never came, I would still be here.
Gathering rich bush food upon my mother land
I embrace my peaceful place drawing on gold sand,
Lightest zephyr prompting me in salt water to revive
With precious blue I renew every day alive.
Where quietude surrounds me all along in sight
When setting sun has begun sea eagle is in flight,
And now I hear my people singing up a song
How happy are my people healthy, smart and strong.
I love to dream of way back then when heart was just the same
A painless time in my prime, if the boats had never came.
My life is a boat
Details obscured
In dark waters
Language too complicated to wrap your head around
Calculations made to sail away
From any conversation
My words are the hull of this ship
My brain the captain
Keeping me afloat
Until I sink
The metal bowels break
Plunging me into the depths below
My mind is still not understood
By me or my therapist
I do mental gymnastics
Trying to center my navigational system
Blessed are the ones
Who can comprehend why they are upset
Who has the power of Jesus to calm their inner storms
When I feel the winds starting to pull my sails in another direction,
I cry
When I cry,
Tears run over the deck
Making it too slippery and unstable to stand on
I can't take down the sails
And anchor myself
My head is barely above water
I'm treading emptiness while I believe I'm swimming
My boat is sinking
We sail through life upon stormy waters
And sometimes calm
We need to keep stable
To survive and keep afloat
Sometimes we use a compass and sextant
To navigate steering in the right direction
Exploring new adventures
And avenues
With the wind in our sails
We journey hopefully
Toward the horizon ahead and the hanging sun
The folding waves
Wild and unpredictable unforgiving
Have taken
So many to their early graves
Foreboding dark skies
Lightening cracks
Tymphony drums rumble
Cymbals crash
We all need someone
To keep us afloat
Not to crash onto the rocks
Safely harboured and firmly anchored
So we don't drift away.
Buzz buzz go the jet ski's,
Chug chug go the glass bottomed boats,
The speedboats race leaving a long white flume,
The water bubbles from the pool aerator.
There's all of the beautiful people who stride around like posers,
There's the strange body shapes that just let it all hang out.
There's the floats and the balls,
There's the parents warning calls.
Children learn to swim from side to side,
You can see their parents so full of pride.
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