Nette Onclaud, Rolling with the R’s, 8/4/2025
Rhythm of a River
rambling
funny waters,
downward rapidity
of laughter on white water raft.
unintended coxswain gets rogue-wave kissed.
guides directing, this way and that,
up and down; rowers with
coarse correction,
rambling.
Categories:
rowers, river,
Form: Rictameter
Let's all celebrate
Motivate and innovate
Let's all have incredible fun
The one that will last more than a lifetime
Every four years, it is that time
Again and again, let's us sprint, jump, run
Like happy rabbits, like flying cheetahs
Let's us enjoy all sports and the hoopla
Let's witness and win the gold medals
Many records will be broken
It is about doing our best and to have fun
Let's bring the torch, the flowers and the petals
Let's bring the doves, the love and the sandals
These are the Olympics, let's unite forever
And laugh all the way to the river
The bikers are coming, the rowers are here
Let's have the party of the century
Let's watch the volleyball players
Invite the drunkards and the smokers
Who are already sadly out of breath
Let's pray that they don't see an early death
Let's win the medals
And decorate the stadiums with lights and petals
May the world remain beautiful
Where there are no weak losers, only strong winners
May the world remain peaceful and wonderful
Where there are no lousy losers, only lovely winners.
Copyright © July 2012, Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several books of poetry.
Categories:
rowers, beautiful, fun, happiness, love,
Form: Rhyme
I met a lady likes to chat;
she’s rather short and once was fat.
Not being satisfied with that,
she made a change she thought worthwhile.
She stuck the plan; she never ceased.
The number on that scale decreased.
She’s thinner now, and she’s a beast
with newfound confidence and style.
Seems fighting pirates sheds the pounds
(especially with friends around)
for when they join, new strength is found
to somehow row another mile.
Though she’s not added to her height,
her rowing stats are out of sight;
while Crush is still not her delight,
those pained pics always bring a smile.
----------
Been hanging out with a delightful community of folks who all have Aviron rowers - we play Row To Riches (fighting pirates), and do Calorie Crushes (high intensity interval training) together, and have a pretty dynamic FB group to encourage one another to meet goals, stay active...
Categories:
rowers, appreciation, community,
Form: Tail-rhyme
A Perilous flight
The flight from Hong Kong to Manila had more
passengers than seats
Give room to pregnant women, the stewardess shouted
I was in a deep sleep
In the aisle, people sat like rowers, bent heads as the plane took off
three-hour flight air in the cabin stuffy
when the heroic had given up their seat for any woman whether
she was pregnant or not, I opened my eyes
they took chances, in the eighty’s money had changed hands
In Manila, I drank a cold beer.
Categories:
rowers, abuse, body, evil,
Form: Blank verse
Aye, scurvy dog! Take one of those!
as cannonballs deal deadly blows.
A satisfying, savage row:
the bond between the rowers grows.
But rapid fire, be on your toes;
you’re in the open, all exposed!
How quick it ends? Nobody knows,
but in the end, it’s down she goes...
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Row To Riches is a multi-player "game" on the Aviron rowing platform where you team up to hold off the pirates from stealing your treasure. How fast and how hard you row determine how quickly you can fire and how much damage you can do with your cannonballs...
Categories:
rowers, fun, health,
Form: Monorhyme
i don't write poems like poets
or rap like rappers
i flow boats like rowers
talk what matters
wasn't raised on council estates
still a victim to down force weight
gravity pulls seeds from trees
it's a vertical growth without no treats
see how poetic wordings breathe
evading me in the verse and beat
as i rap beneath the expectations
a difference without explanations
tap my toes to extrication
set up camp an extra station
stuck with pens and pencils
this stationary cupboard ain't for me
won't buckle when standing tall
rising vegetation will reach the breeze
above and free
the highest tree
you be you and i'll be me
an artist of originality
harvesting brutality
I'll teach myself and I'll be me
and if you're you and true to thee
I'll see you and you'll see me
we'll be our own unlike the rest
and we'll be we, we'll be our best
Categories:
rowers, how i feel, me,
Form: Rhyme
Then Captain Thompson told a tale of whales,
of Davy Jones and seas that take mens' lives.
Of raging waters cold with great strong gales,
that drive his vessel deep although man strives.
A story laced with woe and weeping wives,
of boats fast pushing clear of shore and waves.
To save a wretched few their wondrous prize,
redeeming souls from green and loathsome graves.
Tremendous breakers beat ship sides much more,
upon Fulsome Rock brigantine doth lie.
In blackened sky the arching rockets soar
amid the rain come falling low to die.
And children see their fathers go and cry,
a scene forever staining a young mind.
Men fight the waves, the surging seas are high,
to rowers' fate all those on shore do bind.
Categories:
rowers, ocean,
Form: Rhyme
Galactic race tactic was to avoid lactic acid
Build-up in muscles of space rowers seeded
Second in race around Milky Way star stud
In spacecraft flyers, human driven and blasted.
The crew of eight females well chosen and trained
For the galactic bathtub derby in space powered
By oars that warped space time when pulled,
By rowers in spacesuits with ropes on benches tied.
After the seventh star in the galaxy course was rounded.
Exhaustion set in, lactate built up, and muscles seized.
Rowers in agony, faces contorted in pain, panicked.
But then, they remembered their tactic and screamed.
"Drawdown now, we need that milk delivered."
Sound-tripped taps opened, milk from backpacks flowed,
Providing the last surge of power to win, with finish line crossed.
Galactic Milky Way race won, by tactical drawdown of milk lactated.
Categories:
rowers, space, sports,
Form: Rhyme
I spend my hours these days
Watching the Olympics
With the usual champions the Americans
Canadians sometimes winning
A few medals for swimming
Women winning
Still no men
Emotional with Oleksiak
16 year old Torontonian
Breaking Canadian records
With 4 medals
Women rowers too getting there
Wrestlers, high jumpers, gymnasts,
And Nestor and Pospisil
For tennis medals. Eliminated by Spain.
22 medals for Canada, tying it to the Atlanta Olympics
In 1984...
What else can a retiree do
But leisurely watch tv
Take leisurely walks and swims
See a movie,
Pray, eat, sleep
And repeat this routine
Symbolically comparing the Olympics
To life, to youth, to that period in life
When competition was the be-all and end-all
But now I watch passively
As the young go through this Olympic process
In life, of life, youth, middle age,
Then, old age when the process ends
And life is but that Shakesperean 'walking shadow,
A poor player that struts and frets upon a stage
And then is heard no more.'
Categories:
rowers, age, death, feelings,
Form: Free verse
Along the River
Along the river the wildflowers bloom:
Bright swathes of orange, blue and lavender
Join the swelling of buttercup mounds
Awakening scarlet petals of love.
Rowers slide by in painted skiffs,
Speckled fish leap to climb the sky.
I follow the Sun, always the Sun,
She stirs the world in the depths of my heart.
Let my love be radiant,
Let infants gaze into my eyes.
I held a baby in my arms for hours
And read to him Edna St. Vincent Millay.
He found my voice a solace,
I fell in love
With the boy who chewed my finger.
Categories:
rowers, baby, beautiful,
Form: Free verse
"The Ship of State"
On Ship! New billows sweep thee out
Seaward. What wilt thou? Hold the port, be stout
See'st not thy mast
How rent by stiff Southwestern blast?
Thy side, of rowers how forlorn?
Thine hull, with groaning yards, with rigging torn,
Can ill sustain
The fierce, and ever fiercer main;
Poem by: Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace)
Categories:
rowers, adventure, fantasy, , western,
Form: I do not know?
my anonymity is stalking the streets
like a preoccupation. mornings, slowly I creep
into august daylight, filling beat boroughs.
passing the time: digging fake burrows:
motel rabbitrooms don't come with sheets:
boxes gloomy in the dinge; dead-end streets.
dark corners; alleys; clean and replete.
rowers; faces; kept random, entreat
to be shadowed and cut - copied and reprinted:
E. de Silhouette: silk-screen and tinted.
marionette hands are fire-flies nigh night
like acariasis-itchy eyes: broken from sight
watching the downpour:
downbeat and worn
like tire-worm whitewalls:
peeling and torn.
the blanched, arched faces
(trampled like elephant’s acacia)
are garnets staring blankly at me
between the tiny gaps of a wintertime fleece
a paisley studded blanket, wrapped knee-high round niece.
running tubes from great maple: palsied cold saps
berry's blood ulcer pours like paint with no cap
from a bucket it spills: unravels, unwraps.
It splashes my feet then runs red and abrupt;
silvery and smooth, sanguis from a cup.
Categories:
rowers, angst, social,
Form: Rhyme