Cormorant Poems | Examples

Birds by the River

I think it’s a cormorant
Spreading its wings,
Just waiting to see what
This afternoon brings.

It sits on a log on
The riverbed’s bank,
Its beak poking into
Its chest, neck and flank.

I’m on a bench watching
The bird do its thing
And wond’ring how long
It will wait to take wing.

It has no awareness
That I’m even here
And doesn’t display
Any interest or fear.

A pigeon, however,
Just strutted right by
And stopped for a snack,
But I couldn’t comply.

anguished sea raven

Sea raven, Cornish giant of the sea
From whence comes your anguish?
We hear your battle cry, seabird
Are you calling for your lover or about your lover?

I marvel at your ability to be heard
You are such a magnificent sight this eve.
I watch you in awe, until you take your plunge dive
Down, down, down, into the sea’s murky depths

Are you drowning yourself?
Has life become too painful?
I await your return, holding my breath.
For I have adopted you, anguished cormorant of the sea.

In Loving Memory Of Kerwin Rae

(Motivational Speaker, died Oct 18, 2024 at the age of 49, father of two ) 


In fields of gold I dare to go, where never growing old I row and row,   
never farther than my eye could see, ...for He is looking right at me;
Flying on the wings of hope, thankful every day for that special ray 
that sends me to the sun, like a soaring Cormorant flying free.. 
Mixing clay and water I will build my wings  and temper gently 
with  the coming of the light,   just like Jonah did,  
from the belly of the night....
The last few words I said to you, may they fall afresh like dew 
on the lawn of your heart, may you run for peace and not forget 
that when the waters rise and you can't swim, 
do like Noah did and build an arc !  
In fields of gold I dare to go, where never growing old I row and row,   
never farther than my eye could see, ...for He is looking right at me;
I am a ripple in the quantum field of life, a pulse in the heart of you 
 listen and learn what it is that lights you up and fills you with joy.
Before you dare to go to those fields of gold where you never 
grow old,  just row and row and row and row, and never let go.

The Relevance of Unspoken Poetry

"The Relevance of Unspoken Poetry"


These are “my people”, are they not?
I spread my wings like a Cormorant 
and went deep diving deep deep deep 
full speed, into the muck 

I came up with pearls in my beak 

These are “my people”, are they not?
I reached across the table to them, throwing my runes,
the stones rolled and as they fell, on each face I saw ruins,
and in their minds I read, 

the relevance of their unspoken poetry



Candide Diderot. ‘24

analogy allergy

I’m not one but a whisper -
          I’m nothing ‘cept a sham
               a pharaoh for the faceless
     and the finer freaks, I am

cormorant for the chinamen
          rusty wire wraps my throat
               regurgitating just the best
     to make their pockets bloat

praise indentured servitude
          I’m lost sans those demands
               my dreams all dipped in dolor
     rusty chains that understand

a friend named Ozymandias
          old wrecks and wrinkled lips
               so set a standard for despair
     just shy these sinking ships

though his was of a purpose
          with all that fear could fetch
               I left my stony trunkless legs
     a truth that wrought a wretch

now existence drags me thru
          this cold and reddened mud
               still, be wary of the pen I hold …
     it’s been known … to draw …

some blood.






Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, February 29, 2024

company and loneliness

Too much company 
Kill the company,
What am I going to think?
About those curious people?
What am I going to think? 
Why sailors are celebrating.

Too much solitude,
Kill the solitude,
What am I going to think?
Of the inert stone,
What am I going to think?
Looking at the gibbous moon?

Too much company,
Kill the company,
What am I going to think?
Of those talkative children,
Am I going to escape?
Those pale snakes?

Too much loneliness,
Kill the loneliness,
What am I going to think?
Of these Tuaregs
Masking their face
With deep blue veil?


Too much company,
Kill the company,
How my mother suffered
From these pale nurses,
How my mother suffered
From the devil who sits?

Too much solitude,
Can enchant the eyes,
What are we going to think?
Brilliant poets,
Tell me dear solitude,
Do you really exist?

Too much company,
Kill the company,
What do they have in mind?
Some bananas, some mangoes,
Fruit and grapes,
So man feeds himself,

Turn off this radio,
Think of the black cormorant, 
Turn off that TV,
Look at the sea,
What is this fantasy?
Too much company
Kill the company.

Ripples in the Lake

 Ripples run across the lake
  Racing to the shore,
 The unmistakable call of a Loon 
  Echoes across the water
 When the echoes fade, silence reigns again,
  Marshmallow clouds floating by
 Cast their reflection on the water;
  A cormorant dives beneath the surface
 To nibble on the clouds...

 2-28-2024

Christmas Walk

 Breath of fresh air on Christmas Day
To walk cliffs briskly and view the sea
Boat's in the harbour, anchors away
Silent good wishes to sailors from me.

Ragged cormorant on favourite rock
Immune to all festivity
Gimlet eyes sharp he takes stock
Consumed by fishing activity.

Blustery air blows quickly on my walk
Unexpectedly seeing flash of colour
Distracted when those seagulls squawk 
Christmas gorse with winter pallor.

Walking briskly all cobwebs blown away
Stop to admire village Christmas tree
Completely energised for special day
Seasonal greeting everyone from me.

Belonging

Summer fog.
The air thick and warm
with a closeness gathering in
the early morning as if all
that it shrouds share
a common breath.

Everything holds together,
birds, water, the pebbled shoreline,
as a cormorant dives
downwards through the still, 
its underwater wings stirring
the cloudy strands 
of last nights dreams.
I feel it surface somewhere
in me with a shadow 
clamped in its beak.

A few early walkers
emerge, pass by, then dissolve
back into the morning without
so much as a ripple. 
The fog follows me,
quietly closing up the hole 
I leave. I fear if I make
a sound or move out
of this space,
the morning will collapse
into a hot, harsh and angry day,
pushing everything away,
back into the lonely enclosures
of its dislocated parts.

Towards a Grand Idea

The morning seemed unreal,
too perfect in a way -
the waking river
where small boats ignited
like candles on being lit
by first light and where
a cormorant dived
into a blazing sun.

And here, where
a certain magic began
to find its way into
the great, glowing bulk
of a passing ship
towing its fiery wake
down river
towards a grand idea
that was forming
in a corner of the mind.

I should have left
it there in the unspoken
margins of the morning,
to gather and let
it warm, as cormorants do
by stretching out their wings
to catch the sun.
I was too impatient
and fell back
into where all things
are restrained within
their own space
and have a name.

Seagulls Sailing

 Seagulls summer sailing
Gliding on thermal air
Green-eyed cormorant 
Looks with disdain aware
How screeching gulls do chant.

 Seagulls summer sailing
Swiftly land on sailboat
Birds behave quite frisky
The shore is now remote
Ocean breeze blows briskly.

 Seagulls summer sailing
Arrogance on the mast
Such hubris with feather
After seafood repast
Perfect life of pleasure.

 Seagulls summer sailing
Along the coast they screech
Cormorant still on watch
At antics on the beach
Green-eyed disdain unleashed.



SAILING 
Poetry Contest
Sponsored 
by: 
Julia Ward 
27/07/2022

Pixabay image by: Screamenteagle

Cormorant

                          alert cormorant 
                   dives for fish in eventide …
             …hooked prey hears death knell











Written on 3/18/2022

Nor'Easter

The waves dash themselves
Against the rocks,
Sending geysers of spray
High over the seawall,
Half drowning the cars
That are creeping slowly
Through the sandy lakes
Forming on the road.
The wind screams
And pounds its fists in a
Tantrum on car windows.
The angry sea hisses
And spits a frothy foam
Onto the curling mountains of
Emerald and blue-black water.
A lone cormorant dips and bobs,
Appears and disappears
In the unaccustomed,
Roiling surface of the salt
Pond across the road.
Beyond, the trees whip and
Thrash their arms,
Moaning and keening
In the driving sheets of rain.
Pieces of their shattered limbs
Litter the roadway, and
A single strand of wire
Flips back and forth,
Sparking red in the gloom.
People park their cars
Away from falling limbs
And dash for leaf-strewn
Porches, chairs all spun awry.
They shed their dripping coats
And watch the raging storm
Wreak havoc, safely, from inside!

Empty Net

My balsa wood float rides ripple and wave
My bait unappealing today
Fingers frostbitten but I shall be brave
As I try to catch something to weigh

The cormorant seems to be doing okay
The seagull is eating his fill
The otters aren’t gonna go hungry today
And the pike is awaiting a kill

The Kingfisher fishes alone and aloof
The heron jabs quick as a spear
This riverside haven, I’ve fished since my youth
I still bring a truck load of gear
But ponder this truth under my canvas roof
There used to be far more fish here

Sassy Sonnet

peppy porcelain puppy poops on the floor
  wacky winged walrus whizzes on the door
enigmatic eonian elephant espies some bamboo
  clever castrated cormorant shrieks yahoo

brassiere-busting bonobo barfs on the table
  maniacal mystic monkey freaks on cable
sly sonambulent sloth bear slumbers in his cave
  natty naughty nutty newt nests in a wave

dizzy ditzy doormouse dances with a broomstick
  tawdry turgid tiger toys with his joystick
rugged recondite raccoon races up rut-marred roads
  finicky febrile frog farts on frightened toads

this sonnet celebrates sassiness midst sundry incantations
  ~ surrenders to insanity and scoffs at punctuation

• Short Cormorant Poems
• Famous Cormorant Poems
• Best Cormorant Poems
• Read Cormorant Poems
• Long Cormorant Poems
• Cormorant Quotes