Riptides Poems | Examples

Devil's ocean

Im hearing voices in my head,
all muffled is the sound 
Can't make out the words they've said,
Yet I'm surely set to drown.

Plug my ears to disrupt the waves,
As torturous tides begin to pull me in.
Lost within these endless caves.
From chaos, a life of sin.

Riptides calling me further out,
Into a sea of endless despair.
Nothing attempted; not a scream nor a shout. 
Is heard there's no one there.

the roaring chaos of the storm is quieted to a hymn 
God plucked me from the wreckage, and saved me from the swim.

Along With The Thunder

Weightlessness
My soul floats "along with the thunder,"
Saturated with impending rain,
Scattered back throughout the earth,
Lost among ancient ruins and countless seas.

I awaken, feeling hollowness within my quivering heart.
Frantically getting dressed,
The front door blows open—
Listening to its siren's call.

Piece by fragile piece, I must absorb it back into my mortal coil.
Hike through deadly nightshade-tangled forests,
Sleep amongst somber bones in graveyards of contrition,
Push through arid, combusting deserts,
Swim through the waters of paranoia—
Riptides of mentholated melancholy.

Watch as the embers of dawn settle into the ashes of dusk.
Build a golden pyre upon the jaded shale,
Lay my weary bones on the cleansing flames,
Until I rise anew from the ashes,
Never again to be confined within corroded psychosocial cages.

The Seas Took What Couldn't Be Saved

Disconsolate obsidian waves crash over crumbling dunes,
Sweeping afflicted grains of sand back into the depths,
Dragging my paralysed soul with them.
Engulfed in despondent riptides,
I gasp for oxygen amongst rippling currents,
As a fiery moon hangs precariously overhead.
Blood-red reflections illuminate the stark waters,
While calls of the lost sing to me,
Like sirens beckoning sailors to their doom—
Louder and louder, until it becomes unbearable.

Flaring arms fill with cortisol,
Burning, tangled within suffocating seaweed.
Farther I get pulled from the shore;
The horizon is growing fainter now with every somber beat of my heart.
Isolation shrouds the thickening atmosphere.
Saline leaks into my mouth, drying my tongue as I frantically spit it out.
Hysterical laughter escapes through lips without realisation.
Dehydration overcomes.
Sanity slips with each sip of water.
My larynx sharply tightens—
Barely a noise can be uttered.

Yet the siren calls of the irretrievable continue to crescendo,
Pulling me into an empty expanse, everlastingly.

Deprived of your love

Like a raging river barreling toward an arid basin,  
sediment collects inside a hardening heart.  
Weighing heavy, eyelids flutter over drowning maculas;  
all that can be seen are murky riptides.  
Vision cuts out.  
Frantically flaring arms desperately try to skim the surface,  
dragged deeper into an unknown chasm.  
Sub-zero temperatures shroud panicking flesh.  
Prying eyes open, undiluted pitch darkness surrounds.  
Gasping for oxygen, lungs inflame.  
Excruciating pain catapults through weakening legs.  
Safety is nowhere to be found.  
Reaching into an intolerably tight pocket,  
I feel for your disintegrating picture.  
My savior became my impending doom.  
Only evanescent memories remain  
at the bottom of this watery grave.

My Truths

                        Falling down to my splintering knees,
            Heaven or Hell, the stone will be cast.
Like whiplash, the ground beneath me begins to crack open
As my truth is played out against an apocalyptic backdrop.
                        Sins weighed against my empathic  
                        compassion,
Caught in riptides of my darkness; will light save me?
Flames lick against my flesh as the vultures circle around.
      Pleading to the heavens, I swear my truths are sincere.
            I pushed back against those incessant inner 
           demons
                        As they flirted with the devil.
But my sanity assimilated, and I plunged down that pit.
            Sins took hold, infecting, infesting; the damage that 
            was already done.
      I plead for your unconditional mercy:
                        Don’t let the razor teeth tear me apart.

The Magick Of A Misfit Huitain

Candle wax drips calcified tears, 
riptides of dreams burst boundaries;
Drops become circles never squares;
Out of the box locked in a freeze
with rough edges it aims to please;
There’s no hiding their benefit,
claws can rip apart arteries;
That’s the magick of a misfit.

Time and Tide

In time shadows in an old windy shed
  are names of sojourners who've passed this way;
now my wandering boot does older tread
  where I passed on a long forgotten day.
I see their faces on wall and jetty
  drinking beer, watching the wind and tide turn,
where on horizon across a dark sea
  aerodrome Air Squadron lights brightly burn.
Into its riptides we dived bombed its depths
  where over the skyhawk war birds had flown,
and from its pull clung to those ocean steps
  in the big drag of clays, sand and mudstone.
Now time and tide fade on this hidden cove
where beneath the waves the taniwha rove.


           Written: December 1991


*taniwha in Maori folklore are sea creatures 
  depicted as serpents or dragons with fiery eyes.
  On occasion I saw a few people swimming 
  there that fit that description but no serpents.

*Skyhawks were RNZAF combat fighter jets.

Pen Names Pipe Dreams

Deep within see beyond my flesh and bone,
such quiet flames can come off aloof;
Encrypted smile resembling stone,
my aura stays ninety proof;

Turquoise sea forever I’ll stay true blue 
to all of the darkest parts of me;
Remaining rough and wild as you,
all riptides and savagery;

All the things no one believes I can reach,
pen names pipe dreams I’ll remain in debt;
If the world needs a system breach? 
It’s not time to give up yet;

That ninety proof is what I’ve got to give;
Sharing my truth staying authentic,
that becomes a reason to live;
My spirit stays electric.

Deep Abyss

Floating on the abyss
Or am I engulfed, drowning, dying in deep waters?
I gasp for air attached to your lips
Fluid fills my lungs as I struggle to breathe
The wind lifts my soul to heavenly happiness
Or am I drowning in poisonous seas?
Whistles and harps of sweet, gentle tales
Pounding pressure as I try gasp
Songs of angels as our souls swirl
Or is it wails of riptides dragging me down to hell?

Riptides

riptides

sneaky undertows
 drags black sand back into waves ~
  sea hawks sound alarms

4/3/23
Contest: A New Nature Themed Haiku
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin

Riptides

riptides

sneaky undertows
 drags black sand back into waves ~
  sea hawks sound alarms

4/3/23
Contest: A New Nature Themed Haiku
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin

Dusk At the Beach

As a rainbow of the sunset descends
   and the balmy breeze washes over sand
   that tickles between toes and carefree hand,
I’m in the company of valued friends.
The deceptive calm of darkening sea
   where the cormorants dive for their last meal,
   the leeward shadows of the rocks turn teal –
I would not wish in other place to be.
The windsurfers had furled colourful kites.
   Easterly wind had died down for the day
   and sharks are out to forage and for play
in riptides, lurking out of reach of lights.
I lift my eyes to the offing* distant,
the aspect of which is ever constant.

INSPIRED BY:
Sonnet VI,
by William Lisle Bowles  

Poetic form: BOWLESIAN SONNET

***************************************************
*offing: (n) The sea-level horizon is the geographic horizon at sea level. One of the best places to see the sea-level horizon is a beach. The ocean and the sky provide a clean, flat line where the Earth seems to meet the sky. If you’re standing on the beach looking out at the sea the part of the sea that ‘touches’ the horizon is called the 'offing'.

I Wandered Lonely As a Teardrop

9-21-22
Contest: I Wandered Lonely as a…Challenge
Sponsor: Natasha Scragg

11-4-22
Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon Mile 19
Sponsor: Mark Toney

"I wandered lonely as cloud."  Daffodil by William Wordsworth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Wandered Lonely as a Teardrop 

I wandered lonely as a teardrop
In a sea of sand,
A tempest in one glistening drop,
Ruthless riptides of demands
Rush through a narrow neck of outlet
Turned upside down in midnight vignettes.

Cold specks of numb and ancient stone
Deaf to remorse of a single sigh
Tumble past my burn scar so alone
That weeps with solitude's clouded eye
No time to stop for struggling strangers
To get involved - a diffident danger.

A writhing sea of rushing crowds
Parts around my stifled sob
Roaring indifference shouted out loud
Guarded pain in my teardrop throbs
The shape of quivering unheard laments
Empathy drown and mercy absent.

My colorless grief weeps without end
In oceans like a shipwrecked nomad
Blocked from the warm fount of a friend
Heartbroken by a lost comrade
One teardrop cries to understand
The maddened surge in a sea of sand.

Without Agreement

Without Agreement 

Living in the vacuum of separation
An ashtray of burnt ember vibrations
In wounded agony torn apart 
Sudden separation confusion imparts 
Heartbeat separated from harmony’s essence
Absent whisper of the spirit’s presence
Heart in sweaty palpitations of dementia
Body swoons deprived in apt dyslexia
Two starving shadows whimper with fatigue 
Pull in opposition as slumber flees
Banished into the abyss absent of life’s thrust
Cries for unity in harmony’s trust
Vertigo reigns in space split open wide
Simple grace caught between two riptides
Heartbeats and spirit wind lie in lethargy
Repulse vitality’s consummation in eulogy
The seed of unity clutched in arid darkness
Orphaned with withering roots of starkness
Nomads wander hearing the echo ancient
Blindly call muffled minds in siren’s plainchant
Climb from the chasm of separation
Find the way back to reconciliation.

9-19-22
Contest: San Mind Body
Sponsor: Unseeking Seeker

Time, Like Crashing Waves

Time Like Crashing Waves 

Time, like waves crashing on a smooth-faced sand,
Leaves imbedded ripples on shores of memory
And drop-offs marked with steep undertow warnings
In foamy filigrees etched on recollection
Of abandoned shells searching for lost pearls
Rogue of ever rolling thunder reveals 
A pulsing tide of perpetual motion
A seething thrust in ebb and flow unstoppable
The hidden undercurrent of volcanic change
From dawn to dusk and through midnight
Rolling breakers storm the beachhead
In gyrating riptides rhyme and rhythm
In white caps dripping with sweet juices
To expose beauty hidden in the shallows
Veiled beneath blistered wild gales  
Spindrift masks forgotten sandcastles
As flowing swells returns dreams 
To the impatient pounding waves of decades
Elusive in the mists of unrelenting surges
Sinking into whirlpools, forgotten in new tides.

8-12-22
Contest: Simile
Sponsor: Hilo Poet

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