"mainsails" poems
A day recedes,
I'll chase down one more night
A lamed and hobbling Spring
tries to outrun the tide
of all the misspent months
and all this wasted time
The northern breeze sings cold,
it sighs through tattered topsails
sea of questions waits.
schools of unanswered voicemails
My footfalls share the sidewalks,
steady,
sure. Still young but glimpsing old and stumbling
Walking outside
soaked lungs need some new air
I'm nervous and shaking
fold the map, don a blank stare
my days wearing on
fill 'em up with a fool's words
I'm saltwashed, stuck and
peeling paint off my memory
for now.
A day's been seized--
a metered length of life
Can't place a price on Fall
and can't outrun the tide
of these layered seasons
as his time unwinds
The eastern wind comes hard
and shreds through mended mainsails
river of answers dried
so ask the waving cattails.
His footfalls know the sidewalks
leaking
down sidestreets' asphalt tributaries
Walking around
A hitch in his slow gait
A ghost of our town
shuffles on with a fixed gaze,
his days playing out,
As he strides down the sidewalks
his life plays a film,
flashing bright on glazed eyeballs
And I'm southbound,
4 p.m. driving Orange Street
completely drowned--
--swore I woke up in Gimli,
Manitoba January
seared into my youthful memories
I'm freezerburnt
Autumn heat, don't leave me
I'll hold your hair if you're feeling sickly,
then drive back home.
Autumn heat, don't leave me now.
...Autumn heat, don't leave me now.
May 12, 2014
May 12, 2014 at 11:51 AM UTC
In the end,
It was a brief
Affair.
In the end
It was a ship
That fared....
Too full,
A draft too
Unsteady
To stay it's course
My perfect friend
And listing
O're the force
Of winds
That ripped
Her jib sails
To shreds
And small pins;
I full of pain
You, unable
To hold on....
Against the
Winds -
"A shame"
They'll say
Or maybe
Not
I know
I know
I know.......
In the fullness
Of time's course
We'll see
Our time
Entwined
Was far, far
too brief
To be......
You so full
Of fear
I so full of grief
But we loved free
That is true
And love, in itself
Can beat the tide
But only if
The mainsails' true
I know
I know
I know.........
Your tears were
No secret
To me,
Your wetted eyes
Let me know
You'd -
Had your fill
Of heart pain
And sorrow
And sometimes
We need to go
Aside ourselves
To heal the wounds
I know
I know
I know......
In the playing
Out of time
I'm sure
We'll appreciate
That we
Struck before,
Before the sea
Was ready
To endure us
And so the
The long rock
was struck
And strewn;
We loved
Too early
Or perhaps
Too soon
I know
I know
I know......
The hurt will
Come later
The movement
Changing slow,
My countenance
Will remain
The same
But my heart
Will lose it's glow,
To think
We may not sail again
It is the
End of the affair
I know
I know
I know........
Apr 26, 2014
Apr 26, 2014 at 3:23 AM UTC
I long to go now...
To where sunlight sifts its happy golden rays
Through leafy limbs that stroke the riverbanks;
To where the wafting wind
Winnows summer’s ripe-corn light,
Broad-casts, along lush, lithe folds,
And the hollows of the hills;
To where skies gently breathe above,
And all afloat
Clouds unfurl their mainsails & their jibs,
To tack along a doggerel day.
To wander towards hope,
That feather in a fool’s cap,
And find a morning rainbow bright,
A brief cool kiss of rain,
All to excite skin, then lend lean shadows again,
Oh! how one curls, unfolds,
Under the polar sun,
Like a magic fish,
Flapping on a spread palm,
Or hydraulically smooth,
A giant clam’s lifting shell.
Come now, warm airs, **** vegetable scents,
And full sun after noon,
To expiate the sins
Of replica monsoon.
Jan 10, 2011
Jan 10, 2011 at 2:27 AM UTC
^
< ☆ >
\/
I'm a ship
Upon the ocean
Pressed and frought
On every side
I'm distracted
By emotion
Drawn and pulled
By every tide
I have beams
Splintered and broken
I have mainsails
Ripped and torn
Never hearing
Your words spoken
I am weakened
And forlorn
I've been put through
Greatest trials
Storms I've made
With my own hands
I have sailed
A million miles
And been beached
On shifting sands
Then, at last,
In desperation
I looked unto skies above
There a Star was
In position
*It was God's
Redeeming Love!*
For a while I
Followed closely
Where'er the light led
Then distracted
My own boasting
Turned my helm
Yes, turned my head
I could n'er have
Heard the singing
Of the Star
So sweet and high
For the siren song
Was clinging
To my ears and
To my eyes!
Then I saw them!
Rocks so jagged!
The benighted
Siren's realm!
I saw whirlpools
Waves so ragged!
And I fought to
Turn my helm!
There in fervent
Desperation
I sent up a tearful prayer!
That's when Grace
Became my bastion
I was rescued
Then and there!
Now I set my
Golden sextant
To the Star I know is True
I will follow
Never exit
The Guiding Light I found
In You
Though I have
My certain troubles
It's a better life by far!
I do not steer by Polaris
But by my own
MORNING STAR
SøułSurvivør
(C) 7/14/2017
Jul 15, 2017
Jul 15, 2017 at 1:18 AM UTC
Rumbles of
Thunder
Light the candles of my mind
safely shielded from the
Winds
of conflagration
Fire has never been my friend
There are
Ashes
on my forehead
from the rubble at my feet
Mainsails billow in my consciousness
as a crimson mistral sets my boat
Out to sea
to search for the
Giant Drum
That lightning plays upon
when dybbuks from the ocean deeps
Rise Up
To sink my craft and all aboard in
Flaming Parodies
Of a movie Viking funeral
*ljm*
Mar 24, 2017
Mar 24, 2017 at 7:07 PM UTC
I don't expect you to read this and understand a word
I don't expect any miracles or revelations to come pouring
from your crystalline cranium
I just expect for my broken bones and shattered moans
to be audible to the naked ear
I don't want you to come crying to me
or even call me your knight in shining armour
all I ask is that you see you've always been the rider
and I'm just begging to be your ******* horse.
But you'll never see me for what I am.
that **** witch used your resonant frequency
and now youre in pieces
and your veil is sewn
you'll always see me in reflections of your past
goggles of your mother's addictions
but I swear I'm just sitting here holding out my open palm
even if all you see is my middle finger.
Man, I'll stitch up your torn up mainsails
if you'll be my captain
hell I'll even steer the boat if you want
but **** I cant work with you if youre sailing on the opposite ship
I mean come on
I'll let you sink those grappling hooks into the **** deck
swing an army of men onto my boards and beams
and you can take every rope, wheel, anchor, reel
I just ask that I get to be your prisoner
because GOD KNOWS thats all i'm good for anymore
but ill always be hereforyoui promise.
Feb 16, 2014
Feb 16, 2014 at 2:03 AM UTC
A treasury of childhood memories
Forgotten in a pinewood box
Discovered on a rainy Sunday
Turn the key and time unlocks
~
My books, my old friends, lay before me
Restored once more to a loving hand
For cross-legged hours I turn the pages
Lost in a paper wonderland
~
The pirate ship her black flag flying
Stormy skies and salty rain
Trade winds fill the straining mainsails
A small boy sails the Spanish Main
~
Take me back to Smoky London
Baker Street buildings grimed with soot
Top hat Holmes, his coat tails flying
“Come Watson, hurry, the games afoot”
~
Plumed knights astride snow white horses
****** maidens with downcast eyes
Pooh sticks float on sleepy rivers
Under England’s smiling skies
~
Once again I tunnel the covers
Clandestine reading on a winter’s night
Sylvia Daisy Pouncer whispers
‘The wolves are running’ in the pale torchlight.
Jan 29, 2018
Jan 29, 2018 at 4:33 AM UTC