Skip to main content

Valovima!

An endless slate
Washed clean by waves.

I atone in the dunes.

Take me adrift
On the sands;
Let time erode
Instead of pour.
Into my glass,
A longshoreman
Entraps the steeped
Grains of long
Forgotten gold,
ale. And we drink

To the gales,
And the sails,
And the lasses.

To the ship
that made it.
To the harbor
She passes.

Give me a glass,
And a steady
Windlass, dear.

Let's drink.
Let's drink
To the hold.

Valovima!

Forty fathoms
Deep, off the shore
Of the isle,
We dropped the
Anchor in the
Devil’s Deep Shoal
And felt the
Unforgiving
Maritime sleep
That comes with
Reaching the goal.
And we drink, drink,

Drink to the gales,
And the sails,
And the lasses.

To the ship
that made it.
To the atoll
She passes.

Give me a spoon
And the bluest
Lagoon, dear.

Let's drink.
Let's drink
To the gold.

Valovima!

In the offing,
Beyond the
Flotsam and
Jetsam of life
We might wonder
If matter is all just
Debris, floating between
The oceans.
The briny glass
Of time sifted
And sunk to the
Bottom, of the glass
As we drink, drink

To the gales,
And the sails,
And the lasses.

To the stevedore,
Ready to receive.
To the wide expanse
That breathes.

Give me a glass,
And a steady
Mast, dear.
 
Let's drink.
Let's drink
To the hold.

Valovima!

--

Mad Words List 7.10.18

Adrift
Fathom
Maritime
Longshoreman
Windlass
Offing
Atoll
Lagoon
Briny
Slate
Endless
Flotsam and jetsam
Stevedore
Sand
Unforgiving

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bonus Poem: Look Up!

Looking down, I read the priceless pages, Someone else, sweetly, precisely, Had written their drinkable life on. And I drank in the appreciation Of her words, one sentence at a time, A good, fresh white. Sensational, the clouds were Pouring in, filling my cup,  Easing in, with a soft voice that said, "Look up!" My eyes glanced, only peeking At first, toward the sky. Those rain-bringers harnessing My irises with glee. And as if it had been there All along, the whole long while, A sparrow drifted into the Watercolor before me, soaring. It glided on the currents That were my own world, too. And we shared the view, Him up there, I, eyes lifting further now. And then the wind found itself Playing in the cottonwood's hair. And I smiled, thinking About how good it probably felt, Those wind-fingers, sifting through. 

On My Honor

In the vicissitudes of life, I had started to know The downturn from the sky-high. I watched it wax, Wondering if it would wane, or rain, or snow. Instead, it was just cold, like silence. But not the silence Of respect. Nor the silence like standing in a band room in 6th grade, Instruments still, while we heard about Terror on the television, and watched the towers fall. A tragedy, it was something close to that, but less Permanent. There was hope of rising from the grave After three days or a hundred, I’d wait for you To come around. But I wasn’t the symbol to your meaning, I was just the cymbal that brought noise to your busy Mental street. Clash, bang, just atmosphere humming. Notes on a page you barely read, maybe skimmed. Swipe, like, scroll -- just another “friend” making The Honor Roll. On my honor, do I solemnly swear, To care. To carry your memory like a wound, Unforgettable and deep, oh the colors you made beneath my skin. I wanted rainbows for days. But...

Bonus Poem: Peonies in a Paper Bag

Out of the earth, stems cut, And into the glass. A spectacle, a marvel, A reminder of the Outside, placed inside. They dazzled for days And then one by one They drooped, stooped over the Cold, round edge of the Vase, reaching for the door. And she said, "It's time, These must go. They might delight a few more Days, but no! Look at this Single one limping. They must Go." And into that brown bag They were buried, without ceremony Or song, amid napkins and other plastic Horribles. And that's how I found them. Heartbroken, Ruffled like goose feathers, Waiting to be taken out Again. To feel the air, Even if it would be among The dead and uncompostables, let their feathers Rest back into the earth They were clipped from. "Let us wilt in the place We call home," they said. And I just wanted to caress One - its soft, pink goose feathers - And tell it that it was the Most beautiful thing I had Seen all day. The most beautiful refuse,...