ocean waves crashing
against tan beach then retreats
leaving dead beached whale
I feel like I am in the belly of a whale right now. That whale is grief... I am just floating around with whatever else is in the whale's stomach. Every time the grief hits me, I try to hit it back to force my way out. Casually just waiting for it to eat me while also looking for a way out. Maybe eventually I can find a way out, like Marlin and Dory did in Finding Nemo, but for some reason, the whale wants to keep me there. It likes my company...
Why did it eat me?
What does it want from me?
Why can't it just spit me out already?
Why is it so dark in here?
Will anyone ever find me in here?
I'm scared. I'm alone.
Hello?
Anyone?
Help me out of here!
323.
The Whale Shark: A Treasure
Behold the Whale Shark, the largest fish!
Though it's fleshy, it's not right for our dish
Having the name of a whale, it sounds great in size
Having the name of a shark, it looks fearful in the eyes
But though it's large, there's no threat to come near
And though it's scary, there's no need to fear
This giant is gentle like the biggest of dinosaurs
Like the Apatosauruses that were not carnivores
This harmless “Butanding” eats not by tearing
It's wide mouth feeds strangely by filtering
So it's really ridiculous to strike this gentle guy
Self defense can be a big, big lie…a funny alibi
The world is the home of this gentle giant
In all continents there it is like the elephant
Hey look it's also on our 100 peso bill
The only place where no one can kill
But here in the Philippines, the government will punish you
If you catch, kill & sell this treasure we value!
01/27/2015
(Dumarao)
*Defense of the Animals Collection
Jellyfish
Once I had a wild wish
To be a jolly jellyfish,
A quietly quivering jellyfish
Shivering in the sea.
I did not crave to be a crab,
A sideways-scuttling, crusty scab
In sluggish sludge and dismal drab
At the bottom of the sea,
Nor wish to be a sucking sponge,
Sea-sway drudge of the fathoms' plunge,
Dredging supper from the soupy gunge
In the dungeons of the sea.
I might have wished for shark or whale,
To lord the oceanic trail,
My dorsal fin a regal sail,
Imperial in the sea;
Or dared to dash through the dolphin waves,
Gliding where the wild seas rave,
Dive to a shipwreck's sunken grave,
Sunken deep in the sea.
Instead, I wished for a jellyfish,
A parachuting jellyfish,
A gossamer drift in the seas' vast dish;
That's what I wished for me.
I purchased a skeleton of a blue whale
to frame my new house, down in the vale.
Those whales grow as long as ninety-eight feet
had to purchase few extra feet from my neighbor Pete.
My whale house resides partly in his yard too
People ask me what kind of whale she was, I tell them blue.
Good thing Pete and I get along horribly and wonderfully fine
Because I am still five feet over our new agreed-upon line.
Whiteness of the Whale
(a chapter in Moby Dick)~
whiteness is nothing's void which may appear
lovely or terrifying~or simply as the white
known by convention~~but the whiteness itself
is not describable except as appearances of a
whale which had severed Ahab's leg and sparked
his revenge~or as Ahab's and our own deaths
of the attachments we own~~such are storied
appearances of Whiteness~~
Minke whales, surface and dive
massive baleen lined mouths filter out food
our boat keeps its distance
The water from the blow hole spewed.
It’s hard to believe what then ensued.
With his powerful tail and massive speed,
The great humpback whale’s breaching was awesome to see.
Once a whale spent a day at the beach,
eating one too many pies of peach.
Became bloated in the sun,
to a weight over a tonne,
now has an itch she can't bend to reach
Image #5
Over calm seas the sun does rise
Far away and seeming so small
Truth is where our perspective lies
Over calm seas
One of the largest of them all;
Sea creature with bandits disguise
The sun balancing like a ball
So deceived by fallible eyes
This whale makes the sun rise and fall
Painting red, orange, yellow skies
Over calm seas
Inspired by image #1
"Did you know Orcas can live 70 - 100 years."
National Geographic
_______________________________
An Orca leaps the water glassed,
a sweet scene in the sunrise bliss;
O, experience unsurpassed,
an Orca leaps. .
He wished to give the sun a kiss,
leaving the boat viewers aghast;
experience to reminisce.
With sharp teeth- a killer whale classed,
then, he sinks into the abyss;
these beautiful creatures swim fast,
an Orca leaps . . .
The humpback whale is a musical fella
With a sonorous voice that's remarkably "mella".
He doesn't need orchestration
To cause a sensation
When he lets loose and belts out a tune a cappella.
There’s a whale in my kitchen
He wandered in through my sink
My cousin does some ’n
She is mean as the missing link
Ma says he takes Lulu’s groove
The whale laughed at Lulu’s plight
I say let the freeloader move
Asked whale to stay all night
Ode to an Orca
You are the apex predator
of the ocean.
No other sea creature can
match you.
Even the mighty great white
fears you.
Its liver one of your prime
delicacies.
You are an intelligent animal who
can adapt to any environment.
A voracious eater, you are
not selective.
Fish, seals, whales, sharks, penguins,
dolphins are prime targets.
Even boats are not immune to
your voracious attacks.
You hunt in packs, the wolves
of the sea.
Your young are taught the ways
of the pod.
This knowledge is passed from
generation to generation.
Only mankind is powerful enough
to destroy you.
Even some tribes still revere your
power and might.
It is fortunate for us you have not
developed a taste for humans-yet
One Matthew McGregory Hale
Was thought to resemble a whale.
I don't mean so large,
Nor shaped like a barge,
But spouting out words like a gale.
Sub Categories
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.