Short Mariner Poems

Ancient Mariner
River City H2O, no more 
now for drought shaming...

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midnight sky canvas
city lights erase all stars

                   disoriented...

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Evil can never sail in triumph,
nor can it be dismasted

Dark symbiotic mariner
—in natures perfect storm

(Dreamsleep: April, 2021)...

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Blame not the gale, or the inhospitable sea-gulf, or friends’ tardiness,
mariner! Just man’s foolhardiness.
 
—Leonidas of Tarentum, translation by Michael R. Burch...

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A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner
Work smart, persevere and don't fear failure
A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor
Work smart, persevere and you'll be a winner...

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Azure sky’s 
full moon 
glitters on
cobalt sea.

Shoreward ship’s
ancient mariner
comes home.

July 7, 2021
Image chosen : #1
Contest : Picture This 2-7 Lines
Sponsor : Joseph May...

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The die is cast
lungs turn to rust
another one bites the dust
Quick! Hide Roxy
Queen; she is a-coming!
Abandon Abadon's ship
Abandon tea
make way for the ancient mariner
Pigs to the sea....

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Poor Batter and Pitcher

Have often wondered what is the matter,
With the Mariner Pitched including batter;
Errors made;
Into past fade;
Which has been the worst former or later?

Jim Horn...

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Modernity focuses a painted ship on the painted ocean
Only color and fashion, no air, no speed or no motion

It is not Coleridge's The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
But modern ship like society's stagnant sea and river....

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An
Old
Genie
Was waiting 
To be free from the
Bottle that traps him as a slave
Until the day a mariner rubdowned aged lamp
Liberating a force that prisonered the sailor inside the lamp for centuries









3-23-2016...

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We're glad the baseball season is over.
For Mariner fans, no fields of clover.
Won half as many as we lost.
Tickets too high at half the cost.
Next season look for a big makeover.






For Linda-Marie's Sport  Limerick contest  won #4...

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Verdigris on bronze viv
anchors in mud’s delta.
Grim steps keep going…
A strange fear: the sea,
biting like thorny scrub…
On salty tears, a rodeo
nimbly rides, life’s pain
death-dusting the land…

Still seeking a fortress?

(12/30/20: ’98 Carver Mariner 350 DMS)...

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The splendor shines before my eyes

A torch lit from external light

The Siren's call a stark surprise

A fool bound by eternal night

This Mariner that's free no more

On bended knee with blinded sight

Now helpless on this darkened shore

Forever more eternal night



...

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Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes,
Pondering ancient mariner lore
Walking along the seashore,
Scenes my mind can scarce restore
Of sailors and their pirate foes,
Walking along the seashore
Sand sifting through my toes.

Written March 10, 2022...

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The Ancient Mariner’s Fate
 
Eternally doomed adrift
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Mariner repeats his 
Story over and over now.

A sad soul in true agony
Incomprehensible
His heart now dry as dust
To his fate he must bow.

Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
December 3, 2018 (Double Dactyl)...

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Monkey-menace ever kept increasing,
We, the poets-confidante, went on chasing;
Anger-blazing, my poet-fried, inquired:
What about some poison in pears covered?
Could, a poet, said all, be a killer?
Urged him to read: The ancient Mariner...


13 March 2022
Bite Size Poem no.39 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Line Gauthier...

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She was lying on the Ethel’s turret with a sting in the tail
            Felt a squirt on her face and barrette; is it the end of the tale?
                    Water water everywhere water, not a drop to drink
                  Ho ho the machine does totter, not a moment of wink
 She yanked her pants up ,tail between legs, and crossed the sea without sail...

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When you find that many splendored thing in you,
   you will know it.
But, do not confuse this knowing
   with any former time.

Cast your mind into it--as if you were
   the ancient mariner himself--
And let the line be carried deep
   and far from your sails of safety.

Listen for the voice of the albatross
   as it sings your love song homeward....

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HARBOURING THE LIFE

The lone pole star shines stationary in the seamless sky
for the ancient mariner to sail safe in the unknown sea,
to return home with dreams sparkling in steadfast glow
in the mind, resolute to reach the shore not yet in sight 
to anchor the floating life in the harbour of fulfillment.

June 15, 2018...

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Stabs of setting sun, spasm of sorrow bleed my horizon

Transcending tides of strife twilight starts stellar symphony

With crescendo cascading on stardust on your cadence I float

A boat, fervent wind on sail, voyage on ardent moonbeam trail

Finds the seabed of heart to anchor on the shore of ecstasy 

No tempest to tame, the ancient mariner reaches home.


February 19, 2019...

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Vicious scorcher of a planet, the hottest!
Explored by spacecraft, NASA's Mariner 2.
Neighbor to Earth, but a nasty one at that; 
Unlikely place for any form of life. They say this...
Second rock is capable of melting lead. Damn!


Submitted for...
Planet Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Matt Caliri 
Date written: 05/17/2021...

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Jammed some fun into one day
Aboard kayaks, paddling play
Mangroves, stingless jelly fish
And in my head, a hand itched

In beats, a beach reggae-tunes
Crashing waves upon the dunes
As curling smiles seemed to mock
Monster cruiser at the dock

Yellow sun did set too fast
Dashing night on anchor cast
Awhirl the sea’s brooding deep
Yesterdays pile on the keep

(9/12/2020: '04 Carver 420 Mariner; DMS)...

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A mariner leaves for months at a time
With a wind in his sails and a goal in mind

He doesn’t know what lies ahead
And he eats lots of fruit with dry wheat bread

The adventure calls and ignites his soul
But Mother Nature bawls and takes her toll

Hurricanes and wind tear at his nerves
After he makes it he finally learns
The lesson taught by life itself
Your stories not finished till it’s on the shelf...

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Lying here in this life’s final berth,
No longer escaping to the sea.
If the greatest lie of all is not birth,
Death is life’s great treachery.

I think back to the times I spent
Sifting through the briny deep,
Deeply inhaling the saliferous scent,
Pleasure enough to make one weep.

The grave awaits me, I now admit,
As mortality is seeping through.
For if eternity is not a infinite pit,
I hope it ends in the quenching blue....

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Water, water everywhere
And all the dishes in sink.
Mud tracks smeared everywhere
Wiped away to return in a wink.

Food, food so much to make
Breakfast, lunch, supper.
Just diet, for God’s sake
Plus, you’re such a lousy tipper.

Heaps and heaps in the hamper
Sweaters, hoodies and jeans.
Every day it’s a damper
Walking into these monstrous scenes.

Inspired by the "ruined" first line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner....

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