Water is always my release,
release of that impulse to dive.
Dive fish-scaled and iridescent,
iridescent swells the water.
Water quiets and feels like home,
home undulates but stays sacred.
Sacred like every rolling wave,
wave that binds my soul to water.
Whirlwind of Hope
I found strength
amidst the rolling wave
it’s steamy showers
giving a balmy calm
the bellowing wind
buzzing past
pause to whisper a secret
resounding my passive desires
that you are a part of me
Like sunlit tides on a quiet shore,
a breath of peace in each rolling wave,
it hums of freedom, soft and serene—
a prism of truth in motion’s embrace,
where hope drifts in translucent grace.
Contest: Color my mood
Sponsored by: Nette Onclaud
Contest Judged: June 2nd, 2025 5:10:00 AM
Placement: Third
Whispers of Hope
I found strength
amidst the rolling wave
as the billowing wind
pause to whisper a secret
resounding my passive desires
that you are a part of me
She walks alone by the edge of the sea,
Where waves like whispers speak tenderly,
Their fingers trace the curve of sand,
Calling her out from the quiet land.
The trees above in shadowed grace,
Watch her move with a gentle pace,
Green leaves quiver, like lovers' sighs,
As if they’d known her silent cries.
Deep in the earth, the roots entwine,
As steadfast as her heart’s design,
Unseen, yet strong beneath her feet,
A secret world where forces meet.
The bushes bend, the grasses sway,
The sea hums soft at the close of day,
While she, with love too wide to hold,
Stands there young, yet strangely old.
In every leaf and rolling wave,
She finds the love she cannot save.
Upon the crest of a whispering wave,
A love letter sealed in a bottle's embrace,
Tossed by the tides, an age ago,
Lost in the depths, where mysteries flow.
Within its parchment, emotions reside,
Ink stained with feelings, impossible to hide,
A longing expressed in words so true,
Captured in time, like morning's first dew.
Conch shell trumpets a tale of old,
Announcing love in echoes bold,
Carried by breezes, a melodious call,
Love's proclamation, enchanting all.
Cowrie shells shimmer, treasures of the sea,
Symbolizing love's currency, pure and free,
Gifts from the ocean, precious and rare,
Like the depth of affection two souls share.
In a world of fragments, memories cast,
Love's legacy endures, forever to last,
Upon the crest of each rolling wave,
Echoes of devotion, eternally brave.
Home from School
A little stream by the village bridge.
Clear cold water over jagged stones
searched for pieces of china in the mud
as we meandered slowly home.
Once-treasured patterns and bits of bones and
a black eel,rolling wave,burrowing far.
We sucked sweet nectar from fuchsia flowers
on our way home from school
Sometimes on lazy summer days,
When the workmen were on the road,
We pressed our toes in black tar bubbles,
And an asphalt oily smell, followed us home
A robin's nest was a sacred find
purple foxglove,waving our fairy hands
a homemade doll,yellow plaited straw
treasures home from school
Off for milk to Twomey's farm,
huge cow-beasts, dirty, with leather-silk skin
in September our berry purple mouths
a juicy feast all the way home
When the color of twilight had deigned to appear tonight
I could hear the earth sigh in proud parental delight
As the sea gathered the last rolling wave to rocky shore
the sky a smear of sun’s autumn rays upon her inner door
Gentle, the pastels blend like a baby’s tender early kiss
A breeze laid a rippled path to return the maiden’s remiss
Her wish of a lover’s hand to hold her close to cheek
Rises in all sirens song of lost lovers aching lonely seek
I feel the tide turn towards the hidden moons mystic glow
Shadows darkening, deep currents swirling to escape it’s hold
A lonely man paddles to shore, empty hands reaching far
Can he find the path that leads to loves shinning evening star?
8-23-22
It’s a warm and surreally serene night.
A great milky wheel of stars
rises wet and shivering from the waves
at midnight’s horizon,
and the silver pale light of a gibbous moon
settles on the sea
glistening its tinsel-crested heaving bosom.
Moonlight rushes with
every rolling wave to the shore
as if the light itself was pulling the waves;
The moon had cast
the great net of silver light
and gathered up the whole sea
to haul it to the shore
wave by wave.
~04/13/22
~Contest: A Brian strand Premiere Choice.
You disappeared like foam on a slow rolling wave
You sang a deep-throat song like from a small creature
Your gaze sang songs of sad sunrises to me
You shook my world leaving me by Life's roadside
On dark alleys running through my imagination
You sought people with sad souls
I became confused, your sadness overwhelmed me
your discontent hung like lone shadows on a barren hillside
Lover's pain is meant to teach fragile lessons of the heart
The pain you inflicted on me is an open wound I hide in my soul
I'm not naive, I know that life is not a frivolous party
but neither should it be all pain
A peaceful anxiety engulfs me
As I sit wafting through the winter of my sorrow
trying to make sense of us
you were my chosen one, I chose my pain
You are not to blame
You were the guiding star in my life for a short minute
my father should have warned me
women like you come soft and cuddly like kittens
but leave in a fiery destructive storm
But it's too late now,
you are with him wherever you are
and I am here sitting on the floor sobbing
embracing my tenth beer.
The curling waves approach each shore from sea
To meet their journeys end with crests of white
Their crashing sounds release a loud decree
And wash a foam on rocks with water's might
To cause a rainbow's mist along the shoal
To be seen above brown and jagged shores
In timeless colors that can free a soul
As the glistening waters fill contours
I'll watch each rolling wave begin to climb
Beyond shorelines where hardened rocks emerge
To free their building power over time
Then rush the rocky shores in final surge
To allow eyes to see and comprehend
Bubbling cauldrons at the ocean's end
2/4/17 contest Beyond the Breakers
Unbearable Beauty in PINK
A proud, vindictive, defiance,
rippled through the crowd,
flexed its collective muscle
moved forward
a soft, mellifluous, hum
accompanied them
nurtured their success
speaking out
answered prayers seeking sunlight
casting shadows on a darkness
together holding hands
giving thanks
Three Days to walk, to share,
shed tears of joy – and loss
move along in a sea of compassion
hope’s warriors
a rolling wave
of unbearable beauty
in PINK
10/29/2016
imagery, nature, sun, water, wind, word play
The mountains speak out
From under clouds soaring high
Light strikes down below!
Mountain ridges stick out
Crags and crevices shadow deep
Cloud cover adds frost!
Billowing white clouds
Rearrange themselves in groupings
Formatting anew!
The sun’s reflection
Sparkling the rolling wave tips
Sent by the strong breezes!
He saw the shoreline of his death
Stared at sea's rolling wave
Found the sky and sea's banding belt
Asked God, honor his grave
The red sun will warm his last breath
Footprints he left on the land
Calmly he swims to the setting sun
His prints covered by sand
3/27/15
A wounded heart cries, fills its lonely glass
Held, caressed by the anguished hands of sorrow
Hoping memories last, as tears trespass
To rebuild the temple love did borrow
Pouring eyes awash in long thinning streams
Their sadness a relentless rolling wave
Upheaval from within choking the dreams
Leaving nothing to remember or save
Lost in the rushes and chained to the pain
The heart is bleeding from wounds it conveys
While scattered momuments crumbled from strain
Lay dying, in the garden of yesterday
To find one breath shared with the pain now kept
And feel the wounded heart when love has wept
Related Poems