Week 21 – photograph by Chris Sims
Some very varied poems this week. The winner is Michael Docker with Revelation. Congratulations. Two other poems were close contenders: My Summer Love by Sarah Miles and The Crop, by Johanna Boal. Thanks to everyone who submitted and voted.
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Poem 1
To a ship
Stark silhouette,
where have you been?
What have you seen?
Well may you ask.
I was once the beamy,
tight-seamy, broad-ribbed woman
who made a man’s heart
beat with pride.
I was once that man’s command
in whose hands I would
the world’s waves ride;
their oyster my hull.
Canvas-cracking, nothing-lacking
we shared the will to thrive
and survive.
Tight hauled, we toiled:
proud, hard-calloused hands
manned my masts,
cash-cargoes
in holds.
But winds and tides change.
He laid my bones in this safe haven
as he found a safer berth ashore.
So I, anchored,
became
life-less.
Stephanie Haxton
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Poem 2
Across The Way
The colour drained from her face.
It drained from her life.
It left the world and
I felt myself slipping
Into that murky place with her.
My mind miserable and her
Lips sounding a cracking tut.
She wants me to be strong
For her…
For all of them…
Without my heart I cannot stand.
I could not watch as she left.
I stared confounded across the way.
This perfect, pretty place
Now dull, brown and grey
And as still as her chest for so long.
She forgot to leave the paintbrush,
The answer to this gloomy scene.
I had to find it myself;
Across the way,
A selcouth matter created an adult.
A E Nicholas
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Poem 3
The Crop
We farmed the mussels of the ocean in this inlet
And the fishermen told wonderful tales
Mermaids and Moby Dick came to look
Octopuses lived beneath us effectively,
That dark blue similar to porcelain dazzled
On the blue sea, we glittered like diamonds.
The harbour, the houses watched us like
Hawks in the sky coming down for the rabbits.
Even in violence, waves as big as houses, skyscrapers
Crashed, smashed on our wooden frames
Atlantic storms couldn’t take those clinging.
Local kids used to throw stones, who could hit us?
But now today, online all over, eating the overseas stuff
Who’d pick us, the boom over, a few cling on?
Even the tide doesn’t come in properly
And the seaweed flourishes, strangling us!
Johanna Boal
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Poem 4
The Bare Bones
The bare bones sink.
Slip
sliding, slowly,
slowly.
The watchers are helpless
as the earth takes back
its own.
First the colour, the beginning,
the joy, the effort.
The life led
with passion and power-
to the tipping point
of loss-
Pieces
Left, treasured
by those who remember.
But slowly, slowly,
the earth takes back
the black bones of time.
Angie Butler
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Poem 5
Revelation
Slaves to the far places; men to the sea;
Fruit to the farms, guns to the soldiers,
And all hope, all fear, all songs,
ran out into the silting sand, the centuries.
In the town worn by storms, chapels
screeched songs to God; hopes rose under the pantiles,
Fears sifted in the wind and rain.
Industries to the making, fishermen to the boats,
Centuries to the sand.
Men returned from the sea; slaves sang to be free,
Industries, boats, religions, guns,
All sank into the sand.
And a secular god spoke in a storm,
All that is hidden will be revealed’
Michael Docker
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Poem 6
Astral Tales – Chapter 5
Abandoned home world
The comet smashes to Earth
The final photo
Captured through the lens held by
The person who chose to stay
Kevin Eagles
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Poem 7
The Break of the Bay
They do not see her until time
has leaked away –
silty dregs where yesterday’s games
they’d played and tired bones had groaned
from skimming stones for her to find.
Clouds break upon the morning’s tide;
dim lights falls in.
An open coffin, the bay brings
offerings of her naked frame –
entwined in timber stakes, she hides.
Hannah Teasdale
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Poem 8
Tranquillity In Sepia
A raging tsunami
In the sky
To the east
Catching my eye
Contrasting the peace
Tranquillity in sepia
Those still sandy waves
Distraction is centred
In a dark timber grave
The scene is complete
With an image so sweet
Leaving nothing to crave
I have to ‘right-click’ and save
Robert Mandefield
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Poem 9
My Summer Love
Your fingers skim my palm and clasp me to you,
Lapping waves, your eyes daring me;
A flicker, then we jump,
Eyes closed, water engulfing us like mothers’ love.
Salty kisses and shivering home,
You wiped mascara from my eyes and they closed to your touch.
Long summer days,
Awash with love and life,
Each other.
I stare at the bay and it is drained,
The remnants of something stronger stands proud,
I see the desolation and the bleakness of grey,
But look closely and see our footprints in the sand.
Sarah Miles
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