"seashores" poems
By David John Mowers
Oceanus, Acheron, Styx and Gyges, Phlegethon,
Phaeacians lament, mourn the loss, Scheria, dissolved in froths.
Virgil’s tale, found correct, a land too good, a nation wrecked,
Nausikaa, burn the ships; their minds released, cool airy nips,
Below the wave, watery grave, submerged to bottom, fathoms by stave,
Fathoms some more, until the whorl, descending to, another world.
Through Omphalos, to Land of Sleep, awaits a beast, where time has ceased,
Darkness here, underworld, cold and frigid, below the whirl,
In solemn grave, souls released, judged and counted, by the beast,
Deeper than, the deep itself, past drowning fairies and dying elves,
Who did mourn them? Those golden men, magic mariners, Mino's kin?
What wrong was seen? What vice not true? What awful sin? What did they do?
One thousand years, first black age, Two thousand more, to find the stage,
Cast off Aries and cast Orion, to find beginning, of Golden Lion.
Man of Heavens, Beast agrees, Bull of Sky, Ox of seas,
Land of Punt, Land of Éire, Ogyges blue, hearts on fire,
All the seashores, all the mines, Tribe of Dan, from ancient times,
Port of Sais, Port of Thera, Port of Lagash, bygone era,
Sailor’s horse, Minotaur, a lyre is crying, strummed guitar, nation dying, abattoir.
Ochre foams to sanguine depth, there they rested, where Kronos slept,
He’ll never answer, he doesn’t care, we’ll never know, if this was fair.
Our hearts in sadness, hands on the gates! I curse you Poseidon!
. . .and your Sea of Fates!
Jun 4, 2016
Jun 4, 2016 at 7:58 AM UTC
i don't know you,
as you are a stranger.
your arm brushed against mine
when you passed me by,
and i watched you carry yourself
with confidence i hadn't seen before.
your face is blurry,
but our nights spent embedded
in flame fragments and warmth
are crystal clear.
i can't remember your voice
but the way you made me feel
is imprinted in my mind
the way footprints line seashores.
the waves run up the shore
and i'm standing there,
waiting for them to catch me.
they catch everyone at some point.
i hear a voice,
and i cannot tell its owner,
but i can feel the traces of your words
sinking deeper into my core,
and the water fails to wash them away.
as i turn around, i match a face to the voice,
but i can't see anything but the fragments
of the fire that once burned
within these four walls.
and as you brushed past me,
i felt your arm and its warmth,
and your eyes met mine,
and your confidence fell.
and i knew it was you,
as we are now strangers
with memories.
May 18, 2016
May 18, 2016 at 12:14 AM UTC
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Through they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
3.5k
The Seashore Gathering
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
On the seashores of endless worlds, earth's children converge.
The infinite sky is motionless, the restless waters boisterous.
On the seashores of endless worlds earth's children gather to dance with joyous cries and pirouettes.
They build sand castles and play with hollow shells.
They weave boats out of withered leaves and laughingly float them out over the vast deep.
Earth's children play gaily on the seashores of endless worlds.
They do not know, yet, how to cast nets or swim.
Divers fish for pearls and merchants sail their ships, while earth's children skip, gather pebbles and scatter them again.
They are unaware of hidden treasures, nor do they know how to cast nets, yet.
The sea surges with laughter, smiling palely on the seashore.
Death-dealing waves sing the children meaningless songs, like a mother lullabying her baby's cradle.
The sea plays with the children, smiling palely on the seashore.
On the seashores of endless worlds earth's children meet.
Tempests roam pathless skies, ships lie wrecked in uncharted waters, death wanders abroad, and still the children play.
On the seashores of endless worlds there is a great gathering of earth's children.
Originally published by The Chained Muse. My translation is based on an untitled text in Bangla (Bengali) first published in 1912 and known as "60" due to its numerical placement. Tagore made history by becoming the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year. Keywords/Tags: seashore, gathering, children, sky, sea, water, dance, sand castles, shells, boats, play, nets, swim, fish, pearls, ships, waves, songs, mother, lullaby, baby, cradle, tempests, death
Mar 30, 2020
Mar 30, 2020 at 11:03 PM UTC
~~~
out of an arid ocean
You came up
hoary with barnacles
grey with skin
a spray of stars erupted
startled . awash
against its own night
and down again You go
to know the
mating of tendrils
the killing planes of seashores
the antiquities of the sun
were we there once?
in the phosphor seasons
we played with You
as You are even then
so self contained we found
no need to surrender
to the patient
winds of change
now You echo in
strange meridians
storming Your gusts
in far off topography
Your great tail
sings its starlight way
homing to its thunder
~~~
they came
oh, yes, they came
to harvest Your virtues
their decks slick
with Your blood
crimson stains ugly with lucre
their forest of masts
peopled by
Your ghosts
sing ! O leviathan ! sing
lift Your voice and
bellow to us
of Your lost pods
Your wonderful oceans
Your salty maternity
*Your
song
is
heard
by
GOD*
(c) soulsurvivor
Nov 5, 2014
Nov 5, 2014 at 6:04 AM UTC
Ladies and gentleman!
Welcome aboard Life Air flight 493.
We are sorry for the delay - of 9 months - in our departure,
but believe me,
it's better in here
than in the outside.
Ladies and gentleman!
There is no safety instruction card in the pocket of the seat in front of you.
There are no guidelines, no rules, no help.
Life is chaos and it is cosmos;
Not black and white, but a blurry grayscale
No x and y axis values you can plot and predict
Just a weird steering wheel
and a lot of dubious buttons.
(it’s not as easy as it seems in action movies!)
For life does not come with a manual.
Ladies and gentleman!
In case of emergency, oxygen masks will drop down in front of you.
If you are traveling with someone, please attend yourself first.
Sometimes, you'll find people who you think are
more worth saving than you are
but breathe.
let the air fill your lungs, overflow.
until it reaches them.
You can't help others when you're drowning.
You can't lean on others when they're also on the water.
You can't love others when you don't love yourself.
Because when you take your last breath
you'll remember
you never got your own life jacket.
Ladies and gentleman!
Keep the shades on your windows lifted at all times.
Even though you are scared of what's outside,
pull up your shades.
Look at the funny-shaped clouds
and the passing cities below you,
Take close attention to all the tiny cars and tiny people
and the dollhouse sized problems.
because we will not be turning back.
Open your windows.
You will see tragedy and hurt and war.
Broken hearts that may or may not belong to you,
broken souls that you can not always cradle in your arms.
Oceans of blood, bright scarlet
contrasting against the otherwise beautiful seashores.
Ladies and gentlemen:
We will be taking off shortly. Please make sure that your seat belt is securely fastened. Thank you.
Oct 10, 2018
Oct 10, 2018 at 7:28 AM UTC
My lala sassy Coco beloved.
queens of purple heart mine.
to those loving me near or far.
~~~~~~~~~~~
And you sweetheart
You the awakened one when I fought to stay alive eons ago precioso mio.
Don't worry you woke me up
this thunderous hail winter
upon waking up opening my eyes
transforms to eternal spring.
And as the decades passed revealing so many secrets that you scattered of gold bars and treasures throughout Earth
for enchanted frog little me
in a tini pond destined to search you in your ocean
All treasures now conceived in thought understood grasped too late,
slide like water through my fingers
lost in inaction
Recaptured
in memory thought apeacing me giving strength.
The mind makes everything that's gone very real.
Amorsitos, hermosos you have many names I know you by a few
my precious king of hearts
I own only my heart of gold
jewels are my kids all grown-up
I love your family jewels.
Cariños mios your hands your voice
the way you walk talk as if you sway me and visit me unexpectedly
and it happens often
~~~~~~
Lover long sun kissed limbed
It all lingers true and clear.
Any woman queen Angel or scribe
would go nuts just hearing your tantric sensual voice
but not the way like I can.
Holding your hands loving me imprinting me with
your fingers kissing your palm prints
all over my pristine remote
unexplored seashores.
In your Island for private
romantic lovers you and me
You must feel safe here dear
just a poetess dreaming of you.
My mind make it all real.
and it does again and again..
your voice bridges any gaps
Our dream breathes and lives
when I hear your voice you melt
me or freeze me evaporated me
I cry and laugh and hear God
speaking to me in your voice
it's all so amusing
And bittersweet
I miss and love you all so much
tini litt baby girls and boys mine
"I give my life to save yours
if only any of you ask, you wrote"
I love you adore you.
Te amo the amo.
~~~~~~
By Karijinbba
All rights Reserved
Jul 5, 2021
Jul 5, 2021 at 5:32 PM UTC
I want to dream with you
I want to smile with you
I want to weep with you
I want to go places with you
I want to see sunrise with you
I want to see dawn with you
I want to walk with you
I want to see the stars with you
I want to listen to seashores with you
I want to jump with you
I want to enjoy the rain with you
I want to pray with you
But I can't
Aug 31, 2015
Aug 31, 2015 at 2:21 PM UTC
*Is it sunbathing on the vast seashores
Of infinite indolence?*
Sep 4, 2014
Sep 4, 2014 at 10:08 AM UTC
I suffocate my brain with gin.
Again.
I'm seashores and tin.
I bend.
Proximity alert.
The priest becomes megaphone. Spilling my guts when the circuit breaks.
Privacy. Harmony.
Quickly decode the differences.
Hollow bones.
Betsow a vision.
I ask to receive.
I feel the answers.
Too light to break this Earth's atmosphere.
Too late.
Behold,my vision.
The infant sleep of Mother Earth.
A great extinction.
A man is born with grey in his heart.
His thoughts unformed.
A ridge of her leaking core.
A beach with sterilizing water.
Meeting and leaving.
A pool of molten glass.
A lake of cold translucent glass.
A rock to fracture the truth.
A crack forms.
A club is pulled from there.
Echo. Echo. Echo.
Nov 21, 2016
Nov 21, 2016 at 9:37 PM UTC
I hear your echos on the wind
sweet whisper in the air
The gentle touch sorrow’s pine
a longing to ensnare
Near slumber, my dreams of you
perhaps something you should know
I dream in vivid colors of multi hue
and relish in your glow
Sometimes I hear your laughter
or way you love to tease
or taunt me like the surging
of a deep and watery sea
Images float of mind on seashores
with sand beneath our feet
Or I’m lost within a daydream
in the bend and flow of wheat
And when I’m lost in passion
with my heart or soul exposed
where kisses float like butterflies
or blown petals of a rose
I dream a dream of you
enraptured by your hues
And hope to meet you there
when you are dreaming too
Nov 1, 2019
Nov 1, 2019 at 7:03 AM UTC
Time changes so fast in just one blink
As a young girl played in the rain
Never knew that you grow up so
fast as I reminisce that day
The day we played together
Along the seashores in
the white sand
bluish plain
grey
clay
silver dust
roll,fall,poll
a silly clown of
tricks and guns ball game
swaying our hips until we loose
our breathe one last round till end
And I am grateful that you've reach this
In a million tears of joy,pain and ecstasy
Mar 23, 2013
Mar 23, 2013 at 2:33 AM UTC
Lonely black lab on the path behind the garages I used to sell crack
Went to the shop, brought some **** blacked out windows on a cab
spells danger backwards that's Reg Nad
So I'm looking all around me, back at the cash grab
Where old ladies clutch black bags and wear glad rags
I'm not glad lad, 'cus the world looking like rag mags
with girls selling soul on corners right now
where their daddies sag lag on the track; Baghdad
where war heroes return home back to the smack
and clap traps where they get and share the clap; sad
or when little kids run to their mummies 'cross roads all alone
to their home that used to be a home but now is a dome for the dome
so food can be put on tables that rust and break and the kids get hurt
child protective services, what's worse
I'll tell you what's worse living in a hearse
or a one berth tent on this Earth where the ones in charge
discredit your worth
or better still when they ignore your very existence
so we're standing here screaming and pleading
bleeding and scheming
because there's no food in the cupboards
quit dreaming
stop the screaming
Lousy demon fiending, feeding the sea men with *****
on seashores the sea's ****** sing hee-haw the horse of remorse
hits the veins and see more the way the see-saw zig-zags
back to the black labs on lagging black paths
behind the garages I used to sell crack
Mar 16, 2015
Mar 16, 2015 at 5:50 PM UTC
I am wholly,
drowned in skepticism
at the religion I have nursed.
Bloodline filtered by faith
oceans drowning in fish,
they rebel against evolution —
never dare question rays of light,
what lies beyond seashores,
a galaxy spears stab free of testimony.
I became a man in suburbs of Dallas —
Eve crawled through whispers across earlobes,
loosened my buckle on restraint,
she planted seeds that led me to the cross,
between reason and faith,
the fruit I bore seems sweet to those blessed with filtered water,
far from the Atlantic.
I grieve at my mother’s sudden loneliness,
my father’s eyelids hang forever heavy,
my mother’s dulled knees through decades of prayer —
accustomed to the weight.
An alarming calm, tears flow and reign over us.
Breath,
fear where he is going,
what lies beyond the ocean,
galaxies unconverted,
free of testimony,
I am Holy.
Jan 5, 2012
Jan 5, 2012 at 7:52 PM UTC
All my things fall away like the loose satin of a slip
Endless in its descent and completely free of conviction
Mindless in its priorities and forgiving of the moonlight
Sleepy in the silence of the twilight of the night
Who gives the prayer to the dark of the day
Who tells of the travellers that come sneaking up my way
Who takes the shame, burns away my sight
How in the endeavour of the endless I will fight
Diamonds in the rough I take with me in my wound
Glossing over the sunny sands of the eternal dunes
Cry to the ravens, cry and cry me over
Speed in the tightest spaces of the greed of cover
Sap me in the daylight and perhaps one day it will
Crawl me in the yonder life and keep me ever still
Race me and chase me, dire in all my needs
Frightened and silenced from all that I may see
Grip my heightened perception undulating in the springs
Amass me the corporations and the grit of insomniac swings
Trite in the hive groans, implicit in their destruction
Give me all the room to take in these emotions
Flat and back, flatten the back,
Tie in the seashores and pull in the ocean
Fight for the sunrise and take in the sky
I need nothing more than to see that winding light.
Apr 26, 2011
Apr 26, 2011 at 5:56 AM UTC
My god, you've finally done it.
I'm lost for words.
Me! Lost for words!
Words have always been my friends,
My tools,
Working for me when they would work for no one else.
I'd pluck perfect prose out of the air before me
Words curling luxuriously like cats around my writing hand
They seemed standoffish to others
But I was the Cat-whisperer of creative composition
My magic was language
I have personified pain
Allegorised anger
Sensationalised sadness
But when it comes to your love
I must use the words of another
For I cannot heave my heart into my mouth.
Why?
I want to give you the gift of my words,
For they are the only thing I have left to give,
My heart was always yours, even before we knew
How well we fit.
When talking on any other subject
I find it hard to stop
But when it comes to you,
My silver tongue turns to lead
Because you are the one thing I cannot articulate
How can I explain that when I look up to the sky I search for the colour of your eyes but I can never find it
That falling in love with you was like falling in love with a sunset
That the way you look at me feels as if, for the first time, I am a girl worth writing a story about.
People have put these sentiments into much better words than I ever could
And I love you always seemed enough before
But how can that crescendo of emotion I feel-
And the constant gentle waves that lap the seashores of my mind,
For what is love if only felt in passion not in anger-
Be summarised in three short words?
You know me.
I like to compartmentalise,
Categorise,
Have a name and a meaning for everything I do,
A consolation prize from society-
Sure you're weird, but others are too,
From my sexuality to my star sign
My life is neatly noted
With post its and labels
An explanation for everything
An Oxford dictionary definition for anyone who sticks around long enough to care
I like to pretend I don't do it
But I do.
You were the first person to make me realise:
There are some things
Beyond language.
Sep 10, 2017
Sep 10, 2017 at 2:23 PM UTC
we were making this by the campsite
the night before the battle of
grunwald ('groonvald'),
we were united, the tartars joined us
and brought the following recipe
for the fish we caught on the river:
preready mayonnaise,
gherkins with a bit of gherkin brine,
white vinegar and some capers...
we omitted the chives and parsley
because there were none, the day before
we slaughtered the teutons.
years later the same thing happened,
although in suburban enclosure,
and with perfectly running trains,
and all seashores tamed with foot,
and the aviation traffic,
the new adventurers had to embark
not with astronaut gear but
with their egos, crafting shipwrecks
and glaciers with their minds from
the most apparent mundanities
turned into sour spark tingles
of colours turned into tastes on the oyster's
nano tentacles in the saliva sea.
Sep 25, 2015
Sep 25, 2015 at 11:17 AM UTC
Can you not see me with the lights on?
Am I better to be seen in the dark?
When coolness creeps in our warmth
Is something wrong?
When the winter woods start to creak
And the fiery kindling cracks
Will coolness collect our souls
From the beautiful, burning fire?
And will my sunshine continue
To beat down on your darkness
And will I start to shiver from
how much sun I get
Deliver, deliver
How much more do we have?
I'll build you another home
And lock myself in the canister
So I can live in my work
Play with my work
And never stop to sleep, think, or feel and I will squeal at the edges hurt my shrunken baby head and bang on the edges with my shrunken baby head and I will scream for revenge and hurt my soft, soft voice and I could have bled but I won't because of you, Because I love you, So I will choose another day where work becomes a drug of choice and my illiteracy becomes my democracy, and how I feel that I am misspelled
But how you can right me just fine. How do you do that?
What is your magic?
Where is your rabbit?
I can feel canister's heat melting me
Gluing me onto it's surface
Your smile serves purpose
And your angelic blonde intrigue
Lets my fingers weave and weave
Through every shape and form
Of every sailing ship's storm
And the seashores sunny-blue welcome
Had spotted my loved one's realm
Her and I, we had sunk before we could swim
But we enjoyed drowning in ourselves
The Coral Reef was purple and orange
It had glistened with depth
But sharks had shown us how to swim
And now we swim in blood
We'll learn how to sink again
I know we will
Dec 11, 2014
Dec 11, 2014 at 12:38 AM UTC
rise up and let go of the sunset
let it sink beneath the waves and
eventually
moon will follow
up from the clouds
beaming and teaming
lifelight and dreaming.
let shattered heart
split open
and out will bloom
lilies and daisies
the world has never known,
and seashores awaking
the you that is never shown.
Nov 26, 2012
Nov 26, 2012 at 5:36 AM UTC
Along the shores of your mind,
You were passing by, watching the stars.
In the sky, the storm made you blind,
And your emotions became your prison bars.
The waves of feeling are still flushing away hope,
And all you are seeing is blue.
The memories are gone, so you scope
For a nicer view.
Seeing a bright light, across border,
You run for it and the dark fades away.
The sun on your skin, feeling no disorder,
You try again to swim in the unknown bay.
The weather is calm again
And you finally foresee something.
And the water is so clear after this hurricane,
That you can feel and see what is coming.
Dec 13, 2015
Dec 13, 2015 at 11:50 AM UTC
The sound of your silent voice,
speaks loud from the page,
after all it is a real choice,
to fake and rage
on the road,
at the machine,
not required to be unrequited,
step closer and let me goad you
to get angry,
with what is said,
how words alive were made dead,
so they fall victim to gravity, depravity
then slip into the malaise,
of a hundred thousand other words,
and a thousand thousand poets who like birds
take flight, *****
after they have written rhymed verse or worse,
prose,
it matters not,
none of this matters, it is rot,
crumbling from my fingers and onto a keyboard,
washing up on beaches around the world, the seashores,
what are poems for,
what poets do you adore,
when you read their words,
you see their hands, stained
with pitch black ink,
liken their one utile hand to a squid
gripping a pen, twisted tentacles,
that reach out a grab your heart and
your head, but how, most of them are dead,
or should be,
oh to be a modern poet,
write some words on paper with lines,
add a treble clef and you'll do fine,
if it is hard,
find a bard,
he will string the words, with
thread attach the notes, measure
what you said on a scale,
add it all up and there you have music theory,
explained by a math murderer
Jun 5, 2014
Jun 5, 2014 at 2:09 AM UTC
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
May 11, 2015
May 11, 2015 at 7:33 PM UTC