And now the ebb tide flows,
The end of all intentions,
Hopes and energies
Exhausted in submission to a greater power.
Terms are struck
And life relinquished
To subside in age
And reminiscence
Of what might have been
So many fine and fragile hopes
Remembered with regret,
Time seen for what it is,
The grand opposer of all dreams.
Long since potential fades
In undistinguished shadows
Of a passing scene
With nothing left
To serve
An interest in life itself.
Is emptiness
The only aspect of this view
To falter slow
In meaningless events
And shrivelled dreams of youth?
The world seemed good
Those years ago,
Seemed full and generous
In its possibilities,
Yet dabbled in half-heartedly
It turned
And snuffed the candle-glow
Of proud intent.
The image fades
To trace but faintly
On the clouds of time
The whims of youth.
Morning mist like ghostly specter
Eddies and swirls in dizzying array
Hovering over ocean and dunes
I walk shrouded in mystery
Listening to the sound of waves.
Ebbtide slowly reveals
Kelp and small crabs entwined
Ocean has a particular smell
Provoking thoughts of the deep
Like distant horizon I know is there.
Rockpools entice curious minds
As morning sun burns mist away
Red sea anemones cluster
Sharing pool with razor clams
Desperate limpets cling to rock.
Turning, there are the sand dunes
Sculptured by a master's hand
Decades of nature's creativity
Marram grass gently waves
Quite beautiful in an abstract way.
Critics
Wrote a poem in the sand,
Wonder how it fares if left alone,
Will it bear on its own merits
Or juxtapose by meddling hands,
Meantime, sun-dries it again,
Wind shifts it broad and thin,
Indelible puddles left by rain,
Sand critters pop out and in,
A boy and his ball rolls along,
With a long sigh, looks on down,
Builds a sandcastle then leaves,
Ebbtide gone, flood tide flows cleanly,
I returned, stood and discern,
Comme ci, comme ca, c'est la vie.
14th line English translated from French, "Like this, like that, that is life."
05/09/2019
*POTD*
~~Team PoetrySoup
*6th Place*
old poems, FREE VERSE (003)
~~Poet Destroyer A
The splendid patency of the ocean so vast
Becalmed my eyes when the sunset orangish
Rimmed the depth of the blues far…
The beacon beams glinted by the ebbtide
The waves bravoed to the het up coast
By the breaking of the eventide.
Aweary the trawler homed with a news
The ocean rage is being followed by the force of the veil
Masses at mass bespoke towards their deity
By the voice so augured he willed their existence
A numb so spread met with the aura of peace.
Lasted by the night awaited for the day break
The sun adorned with its rays from the east aglow sky
Forenoon prayers prolonged by the sunrise
Joggers by the coast breathed by the sand
The artisan appealed the passerby by his sand built avatar.
The daylight brightened the coast to colours
A joyous time for the mankind to savor
Maidens in maillot and men in slacks
Plunged themselves into the ocean so vast
Far there the dolphin dance
The waited lensman captured the ken thence.
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