The girl and her smile straddle the rainbow
neon hair the fluid cascades of northern lights
seafoam cloak the ripples outgrown by the shore
she adores the breeze adorned with gems
emeralds fly from silk strings in the wind
kites made of ruby and sapphire and pearl
sit on a picnic checkerboard in envy-green grass
betting on play-dates with zephyrs
—dice cubes roll beady-black-eyes at their folly
she chases books as they sail from trees
fingers stretch to net helter-skelter hummingbirds
she leafs through slices of fruitcake
each nutty page a silver frame of insane;
crows croon Crosby tunes
two baby paisley owls drive a car
the car does a hop-scotch down bourbon street
field-mouse-flowers meow
the moon jumps over the cow
…she sings “the world needs more bumblebees!”
as a two-masted schooner scries water for its soul
the palm of a leaf offers a diamond ring
palm trees pull up anchor and hover the sunset
she laughs as nuns ride upside-down the roller-coaster rim
her dreamcatchers sticky and tricky as spiderwebs
as virgins lose the reins of sugar-cookie-horses
tilling confetti seeds growing puppet gardens
where Dali wombs and peacock plumes bloom
Categories:
masted, dream, fantasy, fun, imagery,
Form: Free verse
How happy is the masted ship!
Does the ship in cold waters make you shiver?
does it?
A sea torrent, however hard it tries,
Will always be sustainable.
Does the sea waves make you shiver?
does it?
Pay attention to the waters,
the water is the most filling liquid of all.
Now sea worthy ship me is just the thing,
To get me wondering if the water is portly.
8/6/20
written words by James Edward Lee Sr. ©2020
Categories:
masted, adventure, analogy, nature, sea,
Form: Free verse
secret tattoos
a three-masted schooner tattoo on his bare chest
my father tosses us each
high into the air and we squeal with delight
make it sail for us.
he rubs his ocean belly and his ship rolls swoons
dips for us and we
dont know he is fading like the lines of the ink
geisha with parasol seducing
on his right arm or blue-red butterfly on his left calf
that doesn’t fly like he no longer
can and sailor you never told us how you raced
behind marines on strange pacific beaches
tagging mates to live and fleeing their dying
screams: at sixteen summers young
nebraska boy belongs in fields of wheat or corn
or a soda shop on main street.
their bone splinters and flesh shreds mingling with sand
still cry in his ears save me brother
help me mother oh god please shoot me bob don’t
leave me leave me. leave me.
tides lapping at the shores of his memory will wash
his secret tattoos.
Rb 90
for my father, a Navy corpsman who served
in two wars.
Categories:
masted, grief, ocean, war,
Form: Free verse
Black, Blue’s dream of knowing
Today, eyes heavenward, an unclouded
blue unto eternity. Look up. Swim
this fathomless sea far as perspective
can carry. Leave behind L.A. Leave used
shores brown as inversion’s earthbound air. Out
past even the strongest of gulls. Beyond
the reaching dust of wings, beyond soundings.
Here, no news of polluted bays; no news
of consequence of run-off. Treated
effluvium of the massed means nothing
to us oared, masted with eyes unbroken.
Night, quiet eddy of the day’s blinking,
is not the domain of dreams for nothing.
Here, eyes unfocus fearless of shipwrecks.
Categories:
masted, dream, hope, love, night,
Form: Sonnet
Heavens right here
It's all right here in your heart
Spirit feeling, moving, breathing right
here in your chest
and it's all right here in you
Those things you find hard are easy
and it's all right here in you
Those things often masted that is called hard
and it's all right here in you
Those troubles you're used to are so pleasing
Now is, it's so irrelevant it becomes a part of you
Some people are giants
Some people are small
Everyone else voicelessly praises God
3/3/18
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2018©
Categories:
masted, blessing, devotion,
Form: Light Verse
Ketch
Keel's deep in water and
Kelp off the bow appears
Kembed as I " keep her luff".
Knighthead to the South, with
Knots at fifteen, on the
King plank I stand...O' this
Ketch is so mighty yar!
3.8.2017©deborah burch
Pleiades
Notes: Kemb means to comb
Keeping luff is sailing near the wind(for more speed)
Ketch is a two masted ship/boat
Knots are speed measure
King plank is main/center plank the others are fitted to
Knighthead is (sometimes a carved figurehead) support for the bow
(As best I recall)
Categories:
masted, boat, sea,
Form: Verse
Masted castles crown the mountains
Hidden by the brackish sea,
Where a string of boiling fountains
Dot the ever-spreading lea.
Leafless forests of the deep,
Visited by swimming birds,
Serve as sailors’ place to sleep,
Roamed by mute, abyssal herds.
Neptune’s armies stride undaunted
While his mammoths plunge and rise,
One of which bewitched and haunted
Ahab to his swift demise.
Find my poems and published poetry volumes at www.eton-langford.com
Categories:
masted, allusion, ocean, sea,
Form: Rhyme
as the cool air blows
the barren wasteland regrown
a luminescent glow
feeds the reeds
feeds the trees
photosynthesis reborn
the budding of fruit
nourishment
webs are casted
sails are masted
in preparation of the morn
of the sweet candescent norm
Spring is love
it rises in the air
like a gryphon's wings
as songbirds sing
they float
they gloat
to feel the air beneath my wings
does there happen to be a thing
which i wont do to then have seen
that view which eagles do see
as they look down from high above
is it not obvious why Zeus has chosen
as his form whilst unfrozen
‘neath the snowy mountain top
Olympus
Categories:
masted, change,
Form: Free verse
Balmy currents retire to southern shore
Frosty streams blight earthen floor
Winter's portents roundly deplore
Wistfully longing for summer's store
For gilded fields, masted trees implore
Harvest's stipend succors no more
Residual huskings now cattle's score
Ingratiating beams now seep through trap door
Bristling wind over meager fare doth soar
Barren limbs are shivered to their core
Fertile seeds, fecund spores in fallowed mounds bore
Wanton foragers denuded channels explore
Spent chaff from nature's vault to gore
Bereft herbivores waiting for spring rains to restore
Categories:
masted, seasonslonging,
Form: Rhyme
four masted schooner
eerily drifts on the waves
smugglers sip on rum
Categories:
masted, adventure, fantasy, mystery, sea,
Form: Haiku
The draw of the tide...
tugs away inside...
remembered rekindled emotion...
lived on the water ...
remember i ought...
Portugese, on the ocean..
cabin boy ..
on a 3 masted schooner...
we lived on salted pork...
the maggots they walked...
red meat went rotten the sooner..
In Timor it's said ..
we'd get fresh bread...
more chillies, beer by the jug..
first mate was casting the lead..
fathoms testing...
as into the harbour we lugged...
sailing round the Cape Horn ..
suicide borne..
over the side water torn..
ironic the twist
sinking forlorn....
no one there to mourn
drowning there did I exist... :)
where i went onetime....Don Johnson 17-may-11
Categories:
masted, adventurewater, water,
Form: Rhyme
06 February 2010
Dream of Sailing
By: Noel N. Villarosa
Never sailed on a three-masted sailboat
Where it bustles to find a smooth wave
Where the wind is its engine
And heels above at the wave’s commotion
Feel the quiver of disappearing in a trough
Then mightily emerging to open water
To stand atop the mast
And feels the strong wind to drown my breath
It fills me with gobsmacked
To sail past on the Seine river
Or ride to a replica of Argo
And sails in the famous canal of Athens
To smell the ocean mist
To rein in the wind for propulsion
And touch the boat sails as it moved downwind
Hear the recoil of bow wave along the hull
The beauty and grandeur of a sailboat
Only to picture, my dream is outlined
The anchor never lifted, the mast never stretched
Only a message in the bottle keeps floating on blue water with my dream of sailing
Honorable Mention to Carol Brown's If My Dream Could Come True: 3/18/2010
Categories:
masted, adventure, dream, happiness,
Form: Free verse
Billowing white
A tall masted ship
Gleaming wet
Sped on
In to a setting sun
Mizzen and top gallants flying
Such golden light
Fell upon a ship
That sped on
In to the setting sun
Billowing white
Translucent too
Such golden llight
Fell upon a ship
That shone
On the big blue
In to the setting sun
She sailed westwards
Followeed a setting sun
Disappeared with it too
Golden light
Replaced with blue
She sailed westwards
Golden light shone too
A ship
Swallowed in colour
In to the setting sun
Categories:
masted, mystery, sea, uplifting, visionary,
Form: Ballad