"waterman" poems
Tonight watching the waves
break over Dead Woman's
Shoals quite a ways away
through the windows
of the Riverview
where I once thought the bar
was the bottom of a boat
scarred deep from the drink
on the rocks and sand bars
until I realized it was a coffin
shellacked black
as the hazards of marriage
between a waterman
and a lonely woman
black as the soft leather
of the stool climbed
and kicked away
black as the water
the night
you found her there
still swinging
from the rope
of the nets
she repaired
for her man
while he was away
chasing the catch
deep in the darkness
of the black waves.
Apr 10, 2017
Apr 10, 2017 at 11:45 PM UTC
Flatten the Earth. Peel the orange
into a butterfly
Octahedral symmetry guarantees it
**** Euclid assumed
How can we be sure of anything anymore?
If we question the fundamental postulates
Do social norms work as postulates?
We assume X, therefore X is true
Cease your baseless premise
Stop the assumption
Deconstruct and be free
Yet we can never be free
Liberation is what we crave
A liberation from power
from language
from truth
from meaning
and yet it chases us down
Feb 3, 2015
Feb 3, 2015 at 7:34 PM UTC
some days i write
rafts and barks,
kayaks and corricles.
some days, a mere log,
set hopefully upon the water.
some days, dories and yachts
pinnaces, sloops, ketches and tugboats
on rare occassions,
great two and three masted ships,
schooners and galleons
filled with treasure..
more often scows, punts
and barges,
work man like and useful,
but not alway pretty
all painstakingly,
crafted...
with planks of words
nailed together with punctuation...
and caulked, with my soul...
sanded down by thought
polished, oiled and varnished,
with love...
then i set my sails,
my inspiration,
to the mast of poetry
and push off....
into the great white yonder....
hoping my xebec...my catarmaran, my dinghy...
my log...
will find a fellow waterman....
sailing, on this...
the ocean of words.
Nov 23, 2014
Nov 23, 2014 at 2:57 PM UTC
Willie wrote to Santa requesting
a Waterman™ for Christmas.
When he woke on the morning
of the 25th, there was a man
in a canoe dressed in red outside
his upstairs window. It suddenly
dawned on him, that Mickey Nugent
the Fireman, was also Santa Claus!
Aug 8, 2018
Aug 8, 2018 at 3:57 AM UTC
*One day, as I walked near a river
I saw many a thing
The muddy water, creating beautiful swirls underwater
A tree standing in the middle of the river
Bent akin to an old man
A waterman, moving with graceful speed
Ripples, beautiful, yet hiding something in their movements
Turtles, swim with ease, sticking their head out
Birds, chirping and flying near the water
The sunset, setting the river on fire*
May 15, 2015
May 15, 2015 at 9:44 AM UTC
passed by the candles and flowers for the first time today, the first time since we lost our innocence
Dec 23, 2015
Dec 23, 2015 at 1:20 AM UTC
Back on the long stone jetty
a time when the smacks came in
splitting the tide with a daily haul -
marlin flags, yellow-fin flags,
shark flags and all on the riggers.
In come the seiners, longliners,
and skipjacks. The crabbers,
the Merry May, Mama's Revenge,
Rock Bottom Sally, all going
bayside with their wares and
worn bows.
Each in it's cutting and bobbing
joy, blows a horn for the jumping
jut-finger kids - the day done
on the shore when the waves came a' roiling.
The jiggers in for the market docks
and a couple a bucks for the gap-toothed
waterman gathering legs on the rocks.
Two for a steak a' tuna
Five for a pound a' nurse
Blue Marlin not for sale, my boy,
it's for the record books.
Jul 21, 2019
Jul 21, 2019 at 6:20 PM UTC
Willie wrote to Santa Claus
requesting a Waterman™
for Christmas.
It rained a lot on the Eve,
back in Kerry.
On the morning of the 25th
Willie was awakened to a
tapping of glass from the
outside of his upstairs window.
He quickly stepped out of bed
on to a wool rug that went Baa.
It was a half dead sheep washed
up from the river (with blue markings)
Immediately, Willie put two and two
together, Chimney flooded, Santa
climbed up to give him his present!
Over he went, excited as anything,
opened the window and there was
Mickey Nugent in a rescue canoe.
Willie said, " There has been a mistake
Mickey, I asked for a Waterman™ and
not a fireman, **** off and take that
****** sheep up to Billy Mullane ".
Aug 9, 2018
Aug 9, 2018 at 12:10 PM UTC
Oh look, it's what's his name
He was in that thing with...
Corrie?
No, well he might have been
Oh, you mean on BBC one a few years ago
Yes
He played a copper along with Denis, oh, I forget
Waterman?
No, he was in the Sweeney
That was the Seventies
He's old enough
The Bill?
No, that was ITV
Well, you've lost me
Google it
Google what?
His name?
Well you don't know his name!
Oh I give up
Hopper?
On BBC one?
He might have been in a film
Hmm, maybe
Right...it must have been Dennis Waterman
I'm telling you, it's not Dennis Waterman
Well, I give up, and so does Google
(2 minute silence watching the programme)
I've got it! Bill Paterson
He looks nothing like Dennis Waterman!
Same age...ish
Your mad
(A shrug of the shoulders)
Right, I'm going out
Yeah...see'ya
Thinks to herself...Bill Paterson...I think he was in a film actually
Oh, that's him in...
JJB
Aug 11, 2019
Aug 11, 2019 at 2:34 PM UTC