Staysail Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Littoral

The wind faces us down, a bitter housemaster
seeing our tricks, he raises his willowy cane, 
jealous of our freedom and wings 

Then pitiless comes the mighty blow,rips the 
boys hand from the sea/a thousand lines

I must drive my cutter to the wind
I must  drive my cutter to the wind

And planets hidden by the clouds, jostle 
for place so that a man might see, and 
take to their contrary taste, while

The briny rope on brass lugs and  
staysail winch and flapping watery 
forehatch, scream for solace in the

Brassy ferment; and in the heavens, a 
widow’s veil contains the sludge-black
clouds above, where seagulls and pitiless 
puffins, with filled-bills, carry their fishy 
death to nest.

And on the shore perfidious, dread-filled
processions of daughters and wiry sons, 
keep the vigil by the hearth; where wild 
wive's wombs, upset by thunder’s booms, 
wade their watery tombs.

Staysail

Looking aloft
Envisioned dream
Dawn at Sea
Tides crash abeam

Seas mystery
Attempts to bend
Ready bow
Sails to mend

Backstay about
Apparent wind
A close reach
Clew torn within

Navigated course
Needed cleat
No buoy insight
Captain feeling beat

One sits astern
Another alee
Corrupted chain plate
Desires to flee

Thoughts come about
Center of effort tried
Eye of the wind
Heel another tide

Weather the storm
Splice, I say
Tell-tales in line
Not falling off today

A painter, grommet
Ship shape, spreaders sway
Searching, missing hanks
Love of the seas headway
Staysail

Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.

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