BASKETS OF SAND AND CORAL
Here on my roof on Eastern pillows spread
I watch the “slaves” unload the dhows-
Strong black men with bulging biceps,
Carrying baskets of sand and coral on their heads.
In monotonous repetition they trudge,
From ship to sea wall, from wall to shore,
Each a vital link of their conveyor belt,
As their forefathers have been in ages past,
Passing baskets of sand and coral on their heads.
Categories:
dhows, africa, racism,
Form: Rhyme
BASKETS OF SAND AND CORAL
Here on my roof on Eastern pillows spread
I watch the “slaves” unload the dhows-
Strong black men with bulging biceps,
Carrying baskets of sand and coral on their heads.
In monotonous repetition they trudge,
From ship to sea wall, from wall to shore,
Each a vital link of their conveyor belt,
As their forefathers have been in ages past,
Passing baskets of sand and coral on their heads.
Categories:
dhows, africa, racism,
Form: Rhyme
For me,
Home is the wind and where it goes.
Home is the misguided run among the corn rows.
Home is the resting place of the stray arrows,
And crooked bows.
Home is the humid moo of the angry neighbor's cows.
Home is that sunset whose beauty flows through squinted brows.
Home is the uneven waves, that provide music to the Arabian dhows,
Home is the feeling, not the house.
-home -
Elliepoet
Categories:
dhows, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form: I do not know?
PAIR OF EGYPTIAN GEESE ON AN ENGLISH LAKE
Across the icy pond through chilly haze
Bewildered, but yet with a stoic mien
This couple, never parted, wistful, gaze
Is this the land that forebears used to glean?
Ancestral dreams where stream and desert meet
And arid sand’s transformed to verdant land
There dhows of antique form skim neath silk sheet
While Sphinx looks on with cryptic visage bland
When Spring brings warmth and all our world is green
Will they be reassured, no need to roam
When wing’ed life will flutter dance and preen
This lake will not seem strange but truly home
With tempting pun I laud their feathered guile
To live life with a soupçon of denial
Categories:
dhows, nature,
Form: Sonnet
Sonnet for a Pair of Egyptian Geese
Across the icy pond through chilly haze
Bewildered but yet with a stoical bearing
This couple, never parted, wistfully gaze
Can this be the exotic land forebears had their dwelling?
Atavistic dreams where great river and desert meet
And arid sand is transformed to verdant garden
There dhows of timeless design skim neath silken sheet
While Sphinx looks on with inscrutable visage spartan
But when Spring warms air and water and this land is greening
Will they be reassured, there's no need to roam
When all winged life is fluttering, dancing and preening
See these waters as not alien but truly their home
Irony and pun prompt the poet to write with wry smile
'Our dear feathered couple live blissfully - in denial'
Categories:
dhows, love, nature,
Form: Sonnet
Dar harbour full of teeming life
A mass of colourful ships and boats
Radiant do your waters gleam
Each wave gently lapping the shore
Sails fluttering in the breeze
Slowly yet violently the yachts jib
As they sail and tack against the wind
Loud blast out the ships horns
As the tugs pilot them to sea or dock
And the gulls screech diving in their wakes
Many colourful dhows sail in to moor
Hot breezes on my face
As midday temperatures soar
Raising our sails we float
Bringing our bows into the wind
Out to sea we are headed
Under full sail we skim the waves
Ready for what ever adventures await
written 03/11/2013
finalist in National Anthology of Poetry Competition of 2014
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SosiBqiUJTM video of beach
this clip shows the beach we lived near and also others of the harbour I talk of in this poem
Dhows are a native large boat with 3 square sails of highly coloured Material similar to Junk boats / ships
Categories:
dhows, africa, boat, sea,
Form: Acrostic
RED SEA RECALLED
Perim squints in sun without relief
Through its narrow windows
Towards the mirage
Of Socotra’s pearled reef
Red and shallow sea floor
With coral islets shimmering
And rainbows of fish
Near its dusty rock shores
Crossed by the Tropic*
Crossed by dhows
Crossed by Moses
Crossroads geographic and historic
Its waters stream warm
Through the gate of tears *
A tideless desert sea
Caught in a sand storm
...............................................................................................
NOTES
Tropic of Cancer crosses the Red Sea’s mid-section.
Bab el Mandeb means Gate of Tears.
Perim and Socotra are islands in the region.
Categories:
dhows, sea,
Form: Verse
Strange shadows on these coral walls
stay hidden from the setting sun,
yet creeping through the shafts of amber light
drag behind them to the high parapet
a cloak of utter darkness.
Fierce defended, now are none:
no frightened men to urge the heavy cannon round
no shrill alarm or battle cries;
the end of this, as every other day has sealed
a silence now complete.
Once we held here, on this foreign shore,
the fortress of our childhood dreams
and all the world’s assaults
seemed nothing then;
an ocean breeze would cool the hurt of falling
and bring sweet scents to pick us up again.
Across the bay the dhows set sail upon a rising tide
their canvass spread against the purple sky.
We watched their leaving long ago
but you are gone away now, gone to sleep
and no injured soul so left alone
can wait to watch them home again.
Yet I will stand, a little or a while,
and will not fear cold shadows rising
nor while breathing yield the fort to them;
in every breach I meet your laughing eyes
and feel the warming of remembered suns.
Categories:
dhows, death, dedication, family, introspection,
Form: Elegy