ONE STEP BACK, TWO STEPS FORWARD:
I have written a lot of poetry that covers the subject of drowning and sea monsters. Its a weird fascination of mine. I suppose it is born of the few times I nearly drowned as a kid. I wasn't a very strong swimmer. Perhaps, in later years it is more born of my time meditating at the bottom of my pool, breathless and cold. Please feel free to comment and tell me what you like and don't like.
Diving into March
2009
A chilling embrace, as if my lungs are filled with icy broth
As I sink below into the briny bowl, bubbles foam and froth
Far above the winter sun hangs high in the trees to the West
To stay below the air above and hug my knees to my chest
As I sink below into the briny bowl, bubbles foam and froth
Far above the winter sun hangs high in the trees to the West
To stay below the air above and hug my knees to my chest
My breath it escapes my lips to escape the confining cold
Along with all the breaths my constricting breast can hold
The swirling world I find myself in speeds up frigidity
Thus prickling my skin and flesh with rapid rigidity
As I open my eyes to a fiery freeze that I can barely see
I taste the licking needles of white water whipping me
But the hypothermic hypodermics harassing my healthy hide
Can’t keep my corpulent carapace beneath the turgid tide
And Neptune’s preaches from the deepest reaches of the chlorine bleaches,
So, like a whale breaches and the cold air still leaches, this swimmer beaches
Along with all the breaths my constricting breast can hold
The swirling world I find myself in speeds up frigidity
Thus prickling my skin and flesh with rapid rigidity
As I open my eyes to a fiery freeze that I can barely see
I taste the licking needles of white water whipping me
But the hypothermic hypodermics harassing my healthy hide
Can’t keep my corpulent carapace beneath the turgid tide
And Neptune’s preaches from the deepest reaches of the chlorine bleaches,
So, like a whale breaches and the cold air still leaches, this swimmer beaches
I Beg of Thee
2011
With long locks like wild wheat,
webbed fingers and fins for feet,
Coral skin and lips like rubies,
hiding pearly white shark teeth.
I beg of thee.
Return my lost love to me.
I sorely miss his company
He cannot easily breathe
Under the briny black sea.
I beg of thee.
Return my heart from beneath
The cove's sea foam soft and green
and the cold blue underneath
is not a place for he.
I beg of thee.
You took my beloved , you thief.
You lured him with your eye's sheen
and siren's song so soft and sweet.
You plucked him from me like a cheat.
I beg of thee.
I pray you show my man mercy,
and you let his shipmates go free.
The crew you crashed against the reef,
and the man you stole last Christmas Eve.
I beg of thee.
Kraken
2011
Fog was as thick as cold cream
covering the Atlantic's carnage.
Just off the crest of Iceland's freeze,
was chaos in King Poseidon's seas.
They call the creature the Giant Squid,
the Colossus, or the Leviathan.
Awakened at the end, the end of men,
No beast of this world hungers like the Kraken.
Up from the cavernous mouth of Hell,
it crept like a Titanic black spider.
Like a Great Old God of writhing wrath,
it hurled black tendrils from the briny past.
From suckers stuck on wet leather arms
to a beak guillotining all it reaches.
It took sailors, souls and ships but alas,
it could never claim Nemo's Nautilus.
The World Serpent dreamt of eating gods,
but the Kraken dreamt of eating men.
