#maritime
By one hand the knife made ready,
In the other flips a fish;
Suddenly, the two are steady
In the rhythm of the slish.
And worthy men and worthy craft
Rebuke the jarring waves that lash
Each man starboard, port and aft,
With bitter wet and violent crash.
And carcass after carcass tossed
Lifeless to the ****** hold
Shimmers, though the light is lost,
And the dreary day grows cold.
And vagrants in the trawler’s wake
Bobbing back atop the swells
Flutter up then swoop to take
The sacrament of fish entrails.
Here, wind and rain and haze dilute.
Yellow, green, red, brown converge.
And the gray is absolute,
And time and mind and sense diverge.
Moments roll as waves uncounted.
Thoughts are scattered as debris
On pebbles of perception rounded
By the endless surge of sea.
And rivers rise and passion flows
Inward channeled by belief.
Images drift by then go
To certainty, or doubt so brief.
And certain as the banks concede
To the wash and swirl and spray
So the tide and time recede
Shaping yet another day.
Oct 26, 2014
Oct 26, 2014 at 2:32 AM UTC
The ocean calls each reckless sailor,
Her voice like honey, dark and deep -
She whispers gold through storm and gale,
A million promises to keep
While the mistress softly sleeps.
When summer burns and timber bends,
When oak meets iron, keel meets wave,
A ship takes shape from fevered dreams:
Hull carved from hunger, mast from hope,
Her canvas sails stretched tight with need.
At last the anchor breaks the foam,
On amber shores the dreamer lands -
Sun-blessed sand or shadowed cove,
Strange harbors, wages wild and sweet -
And the mistress wakes to weep.
For when November's tempest screams,
When desperate men claw toward salvation,
Torn canvas snaps, the vessel groans,
The lady calls the dreamer home
To every promise he must keep.
Yet still the dream devours the dreamer,
And sailors swear like fools again,
Make hollow vows, forget their graves,
While the mistress of the hungry ocean
Croons their names like ancient flame.
So when November howls its rage,
When timbers crack in brine-soaked keeps,
The ocean splits her jaws wide open -
And now it is my turn to drown,
My turn to promise, my turn to keep.
Dec 18, 2025
Dec 18, 2025 at 6:40 AM UTC
Bravo (I Am Taking in Dangerous Goods)
You made me realize—
I’m taking in dangerous goods.
I see now I’m no longer an alpha
I’m a diver that you have to keep clear of.
(alpha means I have a diver down, keep clear)
I went overboard the ship
This is not acting.
I don’t need an Oscar.
(Oscar means man overboard.)
I hear your echo—
Altering my course to the right.
I called your Papa—
He said, “We’re all on board.
No turning back now.”
I asked if I should leave you.
He said, “He’s Charlie.
That answers everything.”*
(Charlie means yes.)
I saw your new girl, Sierra—
She looks like engines
Taking you back.
(Sierra means engines are astern.)
When I believed you were my Romeo—
(Though Romeo means nothing at all)—
You set me on fire.
(Juliet means keep clear—the ship’s aflame.)
It made me want to drink whiskey—
(Whiskey means I require assistance.)
It made me want to check into a hotel,
Fly off to India,
Or Quebec—
Just somewhere I can request free pratique—
Be the pilot of my own ship—
Out at sea, playing golf.
(Golf means I require a pilot.)
It’s too bad I don’t have an X-ray
To see your intentions.
(X-ray means stop carrying out your intentions.)
I thought about going back,
But I realized it’s November.
(November means no.)
I should move more like a man named Mike.
(Mike means stop.)
Even after doing the tango—
(Tango means keep clear)—
I’m still dragging my anchor—
(Yankee means I’m dragging my anchor)—
And I need your tug—
(Zulu means I require a tug.)
May 31, 2025
May 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM UTC
There's something about the sea:
In feeling a force of nature,
So much stronger than yourself,
Surround you in its embrace.
There's something about the waves,
Their raw power,
Their cool, demanding strength.
And there's something about his hands,
His voice, his eyes.
The way his body pulls mine under,
Like waves,
Indomitable, forceful,
Alive.
And I'm floating.
I'm sinking.
I'm thrown around in the current.
In his arms: the sea;
The breath he steals
Then grants it back.
And I pray only
That the tide never subsides.
Aug 28, 2022
Aug 28, 2022 at 4:56 AM UTC
mermaid purses,
vales of kelp,
swinging skyward with the swell
of nautic rhythms
- submarine -
with incandescent, algal green.
in underworlds,
cathedrals blue,
we waltz in coral halls anew,
adorned in silks
of woven foam:
forgotten cold Atlantic home.
Jul 17, 2021
Jul 17, 2021 at 11:51 AM UTC
Avertable impact
Ripped open lid
The fuse lit
And die they did
Imo
Mont-Blanc
The harbor a carcass
Their treasures sunk
Dartmouth
Richmond
Tufts Cove
One last gasp in the sun
Wretched captains
As kings who fought over
Duchess of Aquitaine
Everything to lose
Nothing to gain
"She may one day queen it
over that fair demesne..."
Aug 19, 2020
Aug 19, 2020 at 10:56 AM UTC
To all my co-seafarers out there
We're a kind of man that is rare
Sailing port to port is never easy
It makes our mind look messy
Grieve to achieve more and more
We sail to make our own lore
It's hard to have a safe sail you know,
Just to make my times flow and glow
For our family's on our homelands
Too far but cannot cut our bonds
Even if we are far from our loveones
A day with them will be our lance
As we sail through depths of sea
Only the future in your eyes, I see
Partly inloved without a body,
Of me waiting to be full heartedly
It's sad to say how people judge us
Disregarding it but it has a mass
We don't talk for us to believe
Is these words is what you give?
They say we're fool and full
Fool to trust our "I Love You"
And full of girls that we've made "I do"
But they know nothing but judgements
It feels good when you're way back home
Stealing kisses and hugs that comes
Years or months? Sad but there's also weeks
But its fine even a peke on your chicks
It's hard when we need to leave again
Let we connect with a paper and a pen
Our eyes won't lie to "I miss you"
All I wanted is to be with you
As of now we're heading east
To sail to other lands for a fiest
Not to make love to other girls
I'll finish my job and buy you rose
Jun 28, 2018
Jun 28, 2018 at 8:26 AM UTC
I am a Harbor
Moss-covered barnacles
govern my legs, and my back
is drenched in fog.
My wooden walkways creak,
and the wind makes me
groan with loneliness;
but life stirs underneath,
in waves.
Ships arrive at the worst hour,
full of regrets and suspicions,
and aches and envies,
and troubles and fears.
I welcome angry sailors,
the worst of all mankind,
to drink at my tavern,
and dangle their feet
off my docks, and
stare at the sea.
They look
east by southeast, north by northwest,
to home, where only
memories
return.
Some men are bustling airports;
they welcome millions a day,
and millions a night,
see them off to other skies
and do it over again.
But I am a jealous Harbor.
I keep my vessels with me forever.
I guard them with an icy peace.
And relish in the slap of the sea.
And bathe in the salt of the wind.
Feb 17, 2018
Feb 17, 2018 at 8:30 PM UTC
He was a water sign.
You could tell by his ocean cool,
his balmy breeze,
his gently rolling tides.
He touched my skin like the sun and his kiss stung like sea salt on my chapped winter lips.
But all seas see their storms.
He could be a riptide, pulling me deeper and deeper
until I was choking on salt water
and he was pushing me
further and further from what I knew. And he could come crashing down
like a tsunami,
ripping everything apart in his wake.
But he was a Cancer.
Cancers carry our homes on our backs, so we choose to avoid
tumultuous weather
and brackish waves.
We prefer low tides.
So even when my northern winds
tore through his hot summer,
even when I snowed him in
and froze him out,
he kept his waters still,
not for my sake,
but for his.
Mar 17, 2015
Mar 17, 2015 at 2:14 PM UTC