2. "over the waters blue the night winds sigh, the breakers roar ... Samual Taylor Coleridge
Wailing wind amid strongest ocean storm
Night falls swiftly on tumultuous scene
Sailors aware for they have been well-warned
This is their reality not a dream.
Through long hours before sun ordains to rise
Neptune's wrath bombards with no sign of grace
Mariners strong, elements they defy
Lighthouse aids battle and fear is erased.
As ocean's tantrum slowly does abate
Sunrise breaks through the darkest of dark night
Yet, sailors' love of ocean 'tis innate
Phlegmatic, fearless men removed from fright.
The Mariner ashore
the night in the hallway paled into a yellowish screen
showing a black&white movie ca 1963
A time machine of memories sent him back to the years
to meet people long since gone.
A family at the dinner table of people he knew too well
the shadow of his 125 years old father, was not there
nectar drinking Colibri exotic as Christmas present never received, the one in the toy shop, a red firetruck
with wooden wheels
And he, the son of the oldest man in the world, had gone to sea, and when he returned nothing was as remembered, differently by the people around the table
A lacuna of missed years, a distance that was unbridgeable whenever he came home, a stranger silent
augmenting the gap filled with politeness.
They had known and seen him grow to adulthood, but his character remained a mystery, sitting in the living. room
somehow they were related to him, they knew he would leave soon.
A nurse gently touched his shoulder, are awake?
Yes, mother, I'm home from the sea
Arrogant parrot with disdainful eye
Beloved pet of a seafaring man
Beautiful colours that would make you sigh
Bird's jaded vision the whole room does scan.
Tropical bird quite spoilt by his owner
Colourful language much like his feathers
Truth to tell I think he is bipolar
Stuck on his perch through all kinds of weather.
He dances with rage spitting out his nuts
fluttering feathers create a small storm
His perch madly swaying he's such a klutz
Sad to say he is too old to reform.
Seafaring man quite enjoys birds outrage
Perched on his shoulder bad temper assuaged
Pixabay image:Yevhen1971
Like a lonely castaway
On a ship without a home
Choppy rides on rising tides
Is the place I want to roam
A Mariner all my life
The wind whispers in my ear
A gentle breeze on open seas
Is the place I hold so dear
Far away from solid ground
Land has nothing more to give
Sunsets fair with salty air
Is the place I want to live
The moon shines so very bright
The stars flicker in the sky
Hallowed graves beneath the waves
Is the place I want to die
Ocean turmoil waves thrash with pure fury
Remote stalwart lighthouse on bed of rock
Shaft of light warning ship sails securely
Wild elements bombard around the clock.
On the darkest of night when all is drear
No stars to be seen and bright moon obscured
Mariners stand watch resolute no fear
Brilliant light cleaves darkness all reassured.
Sailor's life remote sailing seven seas
Isolated, lonely yet they endure
In midst of fierce storm, feelings of unease
Midnight watch on duty safety secured.
Dark desolation yet the ship sails on
Mariners singing they're not woebegone
'R' Words
Poetry Contest
Chosen Word: Remote
Sponsored
by:
Constance La France
04/04/2023
Pixabay Image; Darksouls1
Marcion built a ship for all men to enter
Across the never-ending time filled ocean
He divided the water filled with bitter salt
From the water of sweetness with his boat’s bow
Far greater than fiery Moses splitting the sea
The roman harbour rejected him and his ship
For it believed in the bitter water’s taste
Though it rotted their very bones in their red waves
They sold it as water made blessed and holy
Though flames burnt in their stomachs for ever unquenched
He made a map that showed the way to every pearl
The map showed the eleven islands of Christ
(About Marcion of Sinope 85 AD - 160 AD)
Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes,
Pondering ancient mariner lore
Walking along the seashore,
Scenes my mind can scarce restore
Of sailors and their pirate foes,
Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes.
Written March 10, 2022
Walking along the crest of the dunes
Where unusually spindly seedlings grow,
I ponder on a sailor’s plaintive croons
Across the sea, so very, very long ago.
When a mariner’s life was lonely, solitary
Hard work without the comforts of home,
Confined to the high seas involuntary
With gray and misty blue’s monochrome.
The moon casts a glimmer across the water
From far horizon to sandy shore below me
A reminder that I am linked to that sailor
Whose life was defined by seven perilous seas.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
written February 5, 2022
Brian Strand Contest (1069)
But the question then to be asked remains:
What is the source of the light?
To be a lighthouse is delightful--
Unless, the possibility of the light dimming
Suddenly appears throughout the mind.
Then, slowly but surely,
The old mariner shall dim the light,
Hoping to protect its shine
By hiding its potential.
Yet, what is there then,
But a lighthouse who's lost its purpose?
The fishermen remain at sea,
Searching for a smidge of hope;
But fear has won the war;
A light that once guided has become
Lost in its own identity.
If I'm moon in night's sky and love's warmth's not apparent,
rhymes' truths seem reflected at best, light’s eclipse
still’s a rare thing and not of my choosing! Love dims
in life’s shadow, emerges, but orbit’s unceasing
and lovingly followed, I gravitate to you, space curves
in its presence, all matter’s poetic, though ‘love’ lasts
a second, a blink of sad eyes in the Grand Scheme of Things.
Though at times you look through me, this song’s not transparent,
its waves lap your beachheads, its verse tastes your lips
(light as breadth of a smile felt), makes landfalls on whims.
I’m not panning for gold here, grok heart that’s releasing
your heart to denouement, what’s yours (mapped by stars), not reserves
I might claim, keep in thrall! Might ‘Big Bang’ be what contrasts
God’s Love from all others? Aren’t Rhythms, is Rhyme how She sings?
Brian Johnston
3rd of January in 2021
Poet’s Notes:
I am one poly-amorous poet of platonic love. You may not recognize yourself
in my poem, but I assure you that each word, each letter, each space, even all
punctuation was written with you in mind, for you! InshAllah
The die is cast
lungs turn to rust
another one bites the dust
Quick! Hide Roxy
Queen; she is a-coming!
Abandon Abadon's ship
Abandon tea
make way for the ancient mariner
Pigs to the sea.
The Mariner
Crystal tears falling down my cheeks
Behind the curtain face peeks
My skin so pale with broken lips
Wait for jack-tar and daily trips
The mariner stood so great he is
My soul is jumping into bliss
His face and lips and all i miss
So great feeling cant get through this
How hard i tried to end this dream
It is harder than all it seems
My heart and soul forever scream
The thoughts of him what would it bring
He'll travel far into the north
And leave the ship into the port
No voice came out from my mouth
Cant understand what's all about
Far away in Mekong River
Standing still the pretty lover
I dont know how i can recover
Mariner's love is not forever
Surrounded by people, alone as i sit,I stare out far, at a man in a shiny car.
Boredom takes me to the far away sea,to the sailor surrounded by nothing but blue to see,
As the wind blows,the vessel sails, he sits and wonders how for a person, the heart could wail,
For fond Memories and remembrances haunt him as the sun sets
At dusk and at twilight, when the birds return to their nests.
Here where I am, I wonder if the sea knows, of the mariner and his promising woes.
that he who is surrounded by nothing but waves has no other wish but to escape.
Would the ocean send the mariner to his abode? Away from the sea, towards the shore?
Because an incomplete story would magically complete,With the much awaited return of the mariner's glorious fleet.
The Ancient Mariner’s Fate
Eternally doomed adrift
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Mariner repeats his
Story over and over now.
A sad soul in true agony
Incomprehensible
His heart now dry as dust
To his fate he must bow.
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 3, 2018 (Double Dactyl)
PRINCE NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER
Namor Mckenzie an Atlantean
though your skin pink
ankle wings
the rest of your fellow Atlanteans
skin colors blue
Under water, under sea lives
the creatures who breathe in water
And though your father
Seaman Captain Leonard Mckenzie
Mother is Princess Fen
Some mortals and scientist consider him the first mutant
For most of his life Namor been fighting air/land breathers
Most of the land dwellers fear him
Only one female human he almost loved
A member of the Fantastic 4
Susan Richards the Invisible Girl
Now before her was Atlanteans Princess Lady Dorma
Namor fought New Yorker's even fought the Nazi's in World War two
In one of his fits of rages on the ice glaciers near Antartica
Namor throws a random ice cycle inside was hero frozen in suspended-
animation
Was hero Captain America
All this happen in the 1960's
This none aging Atlantean
What a watery super hero
Once an Invader, Defender on land, sea, or air
Namor Mckenzie an Atlantean
PRINCE NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER
11/21/17
written words by James Edward Lee Sr.
from "anthology Heroic Couplets of Marvel Comic by James E. Lee Sr. Vol 1."
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