Water Clock Poems | Examples


List of Member Poems

Premium Member Sun Dial Taped Deck

research with your toys
science means mind adventures...
it's how progress' made

old sol's on the deck
now every day for ten hours...
the floors thirty boards

wide posts and railings
to act as marker shadows...
on sun dial marked tape

scaled three boards per hour
twenty minutes for one plank...
three for every inch

at middle of year
july first twenty nineteen...
a water clock next


stan sand

Water Clock

The river
from a distance
is
a plate of glass
a looking glass
riddled with
images and visages
of memories 
and pain
rain beats down
   on the cool veranda
as we listen
to the breathing
of the night
   and all its
dimensions
and the pretensions
of a pumpkin-faced
moon

On the banks
of the river
up close
we smell 
the fresh race
of hydrogen
and oxygen
sweet berries
wildflowers
     lush grass 
and microbes
rushing 
without halt
 whispering 
to the trees 
       and sun
and soil
and whoever 
   else
might be 
leaning in
and listening

Water Clock

Water Clock

Drip-drip sings in my ancient ears.
So close to the bowl I see the rings.
It dings out the hours every sixty.

Tick-tock sings in my present ears.
So close to the tower when it chimes.
It rings out the hours every sixty.

Crest-trough sings in my future ears.
So close to the wave I see the vibrations.
It sings out the hours every sixty.


Terra Tilt-A-Whirl - For My Father

a dream as years go by,

water clock drip ticks,
another revolution,

minutes flown away,

hearts fluttered wide,
sepia childhood silhouetted,

a grip lost in snap-the-whip,

and glimpsing restless spirits,
crowding heaven’s gate,

gold plated, iron bound,

others just waiting,
familiar indistinct,

while clouds like knotted cotton,

frame a high blue portico above,
a formless basilica,

slow vision of his spirit,

becomes a shining arrow knock’d,
loosed at that far off shore,

flown true, and gone,

as the wind cries a pure tone,
on that played out jazz piano,

coda to another’s life,

like a tragic symphony,
somehow filled with hope, 

his last music…

(I miss it so).

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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