Short Shanty Poems

Set your willy on fire boys, 
set your willy on fire 
Dance and sing and hop and scream 
and set your willy on fire....

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Universal Sea Shanty; or, The Generic Folk Song

Sailing with potatoes
Sailing with potatoes
Sailing with potatoes
The perfect Irish jig....

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Then, there was Jacob from Ypsilanti
Who lived in an old ramshackle shanty 
He saved all his money
For his chosen honey
Wound up marrying my old-maid auntie.

written August 9, 2021...

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not much about the De nada 																	   	puck pigeons peck the Morse coda 																 bogus devil cant 																		nothing hidden all revealed      																	a cappella slang bell tilled          																	 no shelta to rant...

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Shanty Town

The sun goes down on Shanty Town
And drags all light away
And not one moonbeam touches ground
Though numerous are they.
Not even do the eyes of owls
Pervade the ebon plight
Where air is foul, where stray dogs howl,
And babes cry through the night....

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Mutters in the corner,
Halfheard mumblings of conversations,
Uninteresting lives. Dull.
Smoke from tabs mixing with
Cold breath, dancing their escape.
Staring. 
Dreaming.
Slate grey walls holding up a shanty roof.
Rain falls, pitter pat
Random thoughts.
Huddle together - apart....

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A sea shanty to skip to,
an Irish jig hot footing
on clogging stones
heels and knees
chasing swinging hands,
jazz jiving just for fun.
Don't do much
of any of that stuff now,
unless I sleep,
then I jump into a circle dance -
rewind, age, sinew and limb,
recall again
that there is always a Spring,
in late December....

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You spit your salty spite at me
Like I'm all who's ever err'd
A few times before, I've swam at sea
I don't jump in unprepared
So watch your kegs and cannonballs
'Fore another goes around
For I have broken masts and walls
Still yet have never drowned
Hung up when Davey Jones' called
And laughed at the tolling bell's sound...

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Take from me my leisure
Take from me my gold
Feed me with hunger
Bleed me with cold

Give me nothing but a shanty shack
To unburden my weary soul

Just allow me the love of my woman
The honest embrace that erases the day
Into the fulfillment of sweet touches of night

Take from me all of the earth
Leave me my world in her arms...

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What a difference a few years away make
For granted, rights to privacy, personal space,
Right to lay charges of assault, I did take
Them as given in US if America

I'm no longer shocked at fence, tree removed
To steal tin, "zinc" fir shanty roofing
My yard is to be piached fir vegetables, too
We in south Africa, don't bother The Police...

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Listen to poem:

*Image of Driftwords by Pixabay.
Visitations

Yellows upped,
humble shanty forms beyond verdant meadows.

Animals resounding,
quivering grounds,
championed zephyrs penetrate leveled jealousies.

I knocked,
the whitish doorway opened,
neighborly xenial exchanges.

*Free Verse/Abecedarian

2021 October 17...

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God, make your shanty in my room
I firmly fathom, what's your doom
Your handle caused a million streams 
Moonlight that bliss, within my dreams
Among moon insight, we'll resume

8th Place Contest Winner

Written: June 9, 2022

The Moon in June (Choose One of Five Forms) Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Andrea Dietrich...

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The pot is a homeless flower atop
the sill it's shanty town.

Without a place to put down roots
they weep without a sound.

Their tears of dew,
drip a strewn;
their cries of excess water.
The flower pot for all it's not
protests without a bother.

The pot is a homeless flower atop
the sill it's shanty town.

The dreams it's dreamt,
how trapped it's felt,
fore lack of solid ground....

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A Sea Shanty!

Mother call your children home, 
put them in their beds. 
Tell them stories of better times, 
and try to fill their heads. 
Give them dreams of yesterday, 
and promises for tomorrow, 
but bless them, Lord, as they sleep, 
and take away their sorrow. 

Jeff the crewman, singing at the wheel of the Maid...
heading for the Island of Edinburgh, home of Zirconia...

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I can...
Re-free them-
as power for kites in the haze,

I Sherly agree,
where does the THE arrize!!
I plot for the!

Like a shanty house-
Never around,
has its own downs,

hill-top surrounds-

even paradoxical their flights up the signs...

When time doesn't occur,
they have left the neither neither with firsts,

and people as they camp-

they allow those who burst....

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I lay under the sun 
all that is done 
me watching dandelion 
spring up from coarse earth 
ginger beer is being poured 
while hints of curry 
arouses my senses 
alarming sounds of splashes 
camouflaged laughter 
dangling about 
thee shanty towns river banks 
are lined with baskets 
of raw coconuts and banana 
husk a warm breeze 
charmingly whispers my name 
I answer nice to meet 
you too mr. Kingston...

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The sea
that surrounds this narrow land
floats its salted scent across
on a misted wind.
It calls to us,
a rolling song
of a thousand voices,
swallowed
by its merciless depths.
They chant a crashing chorus
of ships and sails,
prayers and fishing nets,
protesting
their watery fate—
as if to affirm
their seafaring souls,
which are never lost, 
but summon their 
earthly brothers
to the shore....

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Intoxicate me with thy soul food
Forlorn a wondering heart
Of subtle substance
Hung on a tree trunk

My jar of wit is overflowing
Across the seven Earth I know of
Touching them to life
Now the sacred pipes are let loose

To tap like never before
From the enormous tree trunk
The shanty town of my utmost being
Like beehive on their newfound prey

Gasping for breath becomes my lot
My destiny, our destiny...

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O' there's so much resilience in residence;
People so inside...
vessels, lessons, treasure, houses, 
dwellings beaches, farms apartments in caves
Living in dwellings homeless shelters grounds yards sidewalks condemned house trains and boats
Scampi shanty shacks
O' there's so much resilience in residence,
People inside 
RESIDENCE 

4/16/25
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.2025...

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Legend of a witch who lives by the sea
spending her days making potions and teas
a mermaid or witch?
believed she can switch
No one knows, townspeople see her and flee



Intrigued by this mystery by the sea 
I find her sea shanty, stop near a tree
the old lady on her dock
as I hide behind a rock
a mermaid is transformed in front of me




Sea Tales Limerick Contest
Sponsored by Carolyn Devonshire

Ring size 8, purple...

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I dreamt of a Lassie;
she had a firm Chassis.
Her name was Randy
woke up with a Standee
Don't tell my wife Tandy
She'll know I drank Shandy
and just reprimand Me.
Well, it's over with Tandy 
our divorce was going Badly,
so, I gave her a big Shanty
it made us both Happy.
Have a date with Shandy
She's my Lemon Candy.
How in the hell did I get that Standee?

Monorhyme Contest
Sponsored by L Milton Hankins
Written 10/ 6/ 2022...

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Even in tough times
By H

Sing to me softly
Like the pitter-patter of rain
Falling on our shanty roof
Falling once again

Whisper to me sweetly
Like the hush of falling snow
Clinging to our shivering bodies
Begging as we go

Laugh with my gaily
Like the birds of summer sing
For even in our misery
Joy to my life you bring

So, my darling, sing to me softly
like the pitter-patter of rain
But first let me fetch a bucket
Because the roof is leaking again

-End-...

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i shant try
to write or
even sing
a shanty
about my
wife

she was born
as Annie but
in Japan she
is known as
Emi but if
any

one wants to
know my wife
just think of
savory dishes
with saving
grace

my mouth
waters when
stupid me
bothers to
taste her
soup

and it has 
been awhile
since i've taken
her out for dinner
but i still feel i want
to carry her not out but

win her
heart
again
for my
palette
has a

taste
for not
sushi 
but
her 
su

she...

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