Housemaster Poems | Examples

Littoral

The wind faces us down, a bitter housemaster
seeing our tricks, he raises his willowy cane, 
jealous of our freedom and wings 

Then pitiless comes the mighty blow,rips the 
boys hand from the sea/a thousand lines

I must drive my cutter to the wind
I must  drive my cutter to the wind

And planets hidden by the clouds, jostle 
for place so that a man might see, and 
take to their contrary taste, while

The briny rope on brass lugs and  
staysail winch and flapping watery 
forehatch, scream for solace in the

Brassy ferment; and in the heavens, a 
widow’s veil contains the sludge-black
clouds above, where seagulls and pitiless 
puffins, with filled-bills, carry their fishy 
death to nest.

And on the shore perfidious, dread-filled
processions of daughters and wiry sons, 
keep the vigil by the hearth; where wild 
wive's wombs, upset by thunder’s booms, 
wade their watery tombs.