The ocean is a brimming bountiful beauty,
of whales, porpoises, dolphins, seahorses,
fish, seabirds, plankton, algae,
sparkling brine of emerald and blue.
Her dead are entombed in her eternal body,
she rises in the merciless storms,
with waves that toss many craft.
Yet, she also lies smoothly as a
sleeping kitten,
mariner's timeless sea chanties in the
winds.
She is envious of the sailor's love
for mermaids,
as she calls them from ports with
her lure.
She's undiscovered in
some ways,
oceanographers still learning.
She must not be overharvested,
she needs to replenish her strength.
Always wondrous and courted
by the mystique of the moon,
warm and bright in the tropical sun,
colder in the North's barren heart.
The great deep-
her legend in literature, art, and song. ~
The roll of the waves hides the arcs of their backs.
The shoal of porpoises are feeding on squid.
Feasting amongst them on cephalopod snacks
Are green-scaled dragons that choose to be hid.
They hide from whalers and their brutal harpoons,
While they stay in the ocean for most of life's times,
Except times when they roam the nearby sand dunes
To covet Marsh Radishes and the wild limes.
These dragons don't fly, since they're aquatic sorts.
Like Nessie in Scotland, they wish to be free.
Some people catch a glimpse, and some hear a snort,
But rarely, since mostly they're way out to sea.
... by observation like fish in a bowl,
others too, share an equal fate that's found
in other kinds, be East to the mid-pole
California's Gulf shallows curb sound.
Vaquitas, small porpoises with large dark
rings around their eyes and dark patches on
their lips. Shore swimmers have created stark
wrath of repeated deaths net tangles done.
In 2015, CBS had placed
their numbers to be less than a hundred.
A new report lists eighteen as its based
end count. Extinction less than ten years, zed.
Spanish named "Little Cow" will be a ghost.
They'd wade at standards to be seen by most.
Precariously poised on
the precipitous precipice,
I pondered whether a nose-dive plummet
into the whirlpool lagoon below
was prudent, well-advised and provident.
But the angry impassive persona,
of the ever so cross porpoises,
seen purposefully prancing there
gawking up at me,
persuaded me to prudently,
postpone the plunge.
Wild at heart
By Michelle Morris
05/04/2023
I am wild at heart
I am wild and free
I want to be like the creatures
Out in the world I see
They are so precious
They are a visual delight
They're cute and cuddly
They live and they fight
Their survival is waning
As humanhood expands
We take over their habitat
Ignore environmental concerns
They deserve a life
That is precious and free
Where they can be wild
Without fearing extinction
I am wild at heart
I am wild and free
I want to live in a world
Where wild creatures all can be
© Michelle Morris, 2023
Thank you @wwf for sharing this photo* by Thomas A. Jefferson. The vaquita is critically endangered. There are only 10 remaining.
worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita
"Vaquita, the world's rarest marine mammal, is on the edge of extinction. The plight of cetaceans—whales, dolphins, and porpoises—as a whole is exemplified by the rapid decline of the vaquita in Mexico, with about 10 individuals remaining."
* Photo on social media and online.
bow riding
Dall's porpoises play
sea otters, orcas
and bald eagles
every day
herding salmon
otter find another boat
and some porpoise
otter love you more
like I did in Alaska
otter mend this net
love slips through
reel it in carefully
and stack it meticulously
(setting it should
never ensue disaster)
a listless drifter
I have been
tempting storms
and rocky shores
otter live this life on porpoise
like I did then
choose a destination
sail to better shores (oh, give me a home
where the sea otters roam
and the bow riding
Dall's porpoises play)
otter love you more
like I did in Alaska
Canonball by Pearcemelville
Canonball tearing throughtimbertthick
planks
Canonball rips thrufleshthroughout
theotherside a hole;:
canonfire CANONBALL!
Fszzt fzt Water wave
Cutlass STrikes
Daggers dag
Flintlock singles out
assassination
Pirate swing from boomrope
Young Naval Guards stand firm
BooM!! Canonfire
BooM!
Pirate ship
Due Archipelago
Naval Fleet Frigate
limps to Harbour Home
Bones that night work cut out
not a numbbing aggennt
to ease a groan...
Pirate Ship
due archipelago
Following One Star
Threads through reef
hidesincove drops anchor
Water Main concern
Waiting for Tide to turn to test
mettleagainstreefrock
Rockyreefsrock
Rockyreeff
Rockyreefsrock
rockyreefs
REEFSSS
reefrockysh
RRsshh
Waves against the timberhull
Porpoises flew dived
Seagull scrounging circling
windwinding round
pirateship
Set for plunder richness
Following one star North
Persnickety porcupine are you a rodent then?
Are those quills at the end of your tiny chin-chin?
To the ocean, have you ever travelled or been?
Swimming with porpoises next to your prickly skin?
natural wonders
are seldom too expensive
pretty seashells found
porpoises playing
flocks of gulls in formation
whitecaps rolling in
pieces of driftwood
dunes replete with palmetto
footprints in the sand
written June 12, 2021
Global warming is causing climate change:
while ice sheets at the poles are melting fast;
as oceans and deserts increase their range.
Whales and porpoises are beaching, so strange,
nearing extinction, they're among the last:
global warming is causing climate change.
Folks are acting like a dog with the mange,
scratching out a living, lost to the past;
as oceans and deserts increase their range.
Tomorrow buys today; that's the exchange:
greed pushes progress, with few questions asked:
global warming is causing climate change.
Though over time, theories interchange:
the amount of damage is far too vast:
as oceans and deserts increase their range.
We've lost all hope that time will rearrange
these unscheduled changes: the die's been cast.
Global warming is causing climate change
as oceans and deserts increase their range.
*Image of
Twilight Descension
Bats fickle genteel soles of twilight, as swart crown abandons an errant moon,
A moon burrowing framing a forest, while Cupid charioteers spark an archway,
Neath a sinking moon, buds blossom, awaken by galloping Cherubs all strewn,
Frogs echoes in a lagoon as twilight wanes, same as words said of Hemingway,
Porpoises leap frantically in the ocean, while night drifts in dawns golden sleigh.
2019 December 27
*3rd Place*
Writing Prompt - English Quintain Imagery
~~Dear Heart: Judged 2020 January 10
Rhyme Scheme; a,b,a,b,b
The seas softly speak with voices that talismanically tweak,
Magical maids in their mystique porpoises of their physique…
Ambient aqua-marine waving seductresses of their craving,
A splashing sylph spraying through wandering waters braving…
Goddesses of the dousing deep show finesse as they leap,
Enchanting when they weep collecting desires for their keep…
Landing on our sandy shore all eyes on the deceptive décor,
Mystic Mermaids to adore Lorelei longing from the Ocean floor…
A siren seducer submersing a temptress of the water traversing,
Below lavender skies nursing her delinquent desires dispersing…
Mesmerizing mermaids silently sailing with their mermen tailing,
A sorceress in their scaling intoxicated by their Venus unveiling.
Sept.23.2019
MERMAIDS Poetry
Sponsored by: Line Gauthier
Placed 4'th...Thank You
twelve hours half a day--CQ
night surrenders
saffron sky delves
import tortoise
export fledglings
sand crabs popout
penguins waddle
porpoises play
zenith star slips
2019 August 31
*1st Place*
Charlie-Quadku
~~charles messina
• young couple, fit male brown hair and glasses with toned blond female taking multiple selfies as ferry leaves Newfoundland
• middle aged blond woman- multiple selfies - all angles
• young tattooed dude chatting to unseen companions while smoking cigarettes
• older balding male looks longingly at vanishing shore
• young blond woman takes a quick selfie and is gone
• family, father red/blond hair and beard holdling young child too short to be seen over railing, wife and daughter appear only briefly
• background conversation, "It's not for me. You have to go through a lot of dirt to find a bit of gold"
• middle aged male, green T-shirt and sunglasses looks only into ferry's vehicles deck
I depart to join my wife and watch dolphins and porpoises from starboard aft of ferry.
Life lost in saline streams
Straining to see
Possibilities in reams and streams
Crane to love me
Although I desire nothing unproven
In the world I grapple to save
From madness and sadness woven
In webs only the brave
Dare to challenge
In the open where nerves
Bent on revenge
Achieve rubbish that serves
No useful purposes
In improving prospects
For souls that befriend porpoises
Upon finding at their detriment suspects
Aren’t always guilty
Despite evidence claiming the world gets better
Now that the mighty
Grow less bitter
Engaging concerns
Thrown to back pages
For too long in urns
Where they rot for ages
Hoping dreams come true
For creatures great and small
Whose wisdom and freedom glue
Souls who can play ball
In efforts to fraternize
Erstwhile enemies
And modernize to incentivize
The growth economies
Need to plant sesame seeds
To grow goodwill
Through daring deeds
Whose efficient effects spill
To the general populace
Who longs for shelter
As technologies race
Forth to implement the letter
That signifies happiness
Flying into every quarter
Where it jettisons sadness
Drowning it into wintry water.
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.