The ocean dances. It undulates and curls. Arches back and bends forward. The proud swell leaps toward the finale along the shore. The choreography can be beautiful, or it can be severe and unrelenting.
Poetry Prompt: Write a poem from the perspective of a wave, as it reaches the shore.
Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a poem from Zachary we enjoyed:
At dawn I knelt to touch a star
clinging to a shell of hammered metal
in a tidal pool.
This afternoon a flock of birds
sniped at brine-flies
bursting out of white-hot sand,
while faceless totems drifted
back and forth between two worlds.
Now, as evening falls,
a million jewels emerge,
then plummet one by one into the sea:
too heavy for the sky to hold,
too beautiful for words alone
to make them shine.
—by Zachary Garripoli
***
Photo by Jeff Rowley. Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Heather Eure.
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Sometimes we feature your poems in Every Day Poems, with your permission of course. Thanks for writing with us!
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Amy says
Folds of gossamer
fall across the porous sand;
pelagic passing.
http://amyglamos.tumblr.com/post/93114308410/folds-of-gossamer-fall-across-the-porous-sand
SimplyDarlene says
sands of time
swept out to sea –
never leave the
hourglass
alone
Marcy Terwilliger says
Sea, calm.
Black round tube,
Around my waist.
Drifting my life away.
Sleepy eyes wake-up,
To find.
Barely see the shoreline,
Panic
Strong swimmer not me,
Waves crash,
Arms pushing hard,
Feet peddle fast.
Finally reach the shore,
I will not do that anymore.
Richard Maxson says
of emptiness and light
how glorious
to be made
of small things—
light passes through us,
even in the shade—
we shine, we glow,
impalpable to eyes,
so made of waves,
like fields of grass,
or dunes of sand,
and those on which
the oceans rise.
Marcy Terwilliger says
“Light or Darkness”
Is this light all you know?
Have you’ve seen Heaven’s glow?
White light, I’ve been told.
How about darkness?
Have you really seen it yet?
Pitch black and bottomless,
Does it scare you to death?
In darkness, lies regrets.
I’ll swim up and take the light,
Let it shine through,
Inside my body, flows like the sea
As it runs to you.
The Son, bright shinning star,
Is what I see.
Lift me Lord, Lift me from the deep.
Heather Eure says
Wonderful, Marcy.
Marcy says
Thanks Heather, that means a lot when someone comments on your work. I keep a very low profile on face book, just my closes friends. I run my poems by them first and always ask for comments. This one got a lot of thumbs up.
Glynn says
For the poetry prompt:
http://faithfictionfriends.blogspot.com/2014/07/an-eternal-silence.html
Elizabeth W. Marshall says
Poetry Prompt Poem “Swells” for Swell 🙂
http://www.wynnegraceappears.com/2014/07/28/Swells
Sandra Heska King says
That link is broken, Elizabeth. Let’s go with this one. 😉
http://wynnegraceappears.com/2014/07/29/swells/
Elizabeth Marshall says
Thank you perfect friend, SHK for throwing me a life raft. You’re a lifesaver ♡
Sandra Heska King says
Silliness…
http://sandraheskaking.com/2014/07/poetry-prompt-waves/
Sandra Heska King says
🙂
Julie Sumner says
Wave
by Julie Sumner
I spent a liquid life
Gathering prisms and porpoises,
As many as my wide arms would hold,
Then leapt headlong toward the sun’s embrace,
Straining upward for just a kiss,
Emptying my whole glittering self,
Flinging all I had gathered
To the warm, giddy sand.
michelle ortega says
just before sleep this poem
rises from my ocean-bed
a subtle swell gaining strength and
form like energy that builds from
the pull of the moon over the tides
and the force of the wind over the sea
tension builds within the wave while
inertia hurtles words toward
the shore tighter and tighter until
this work crashes onto the beach
exploding infinitely into the air
to nourish the breath of each
reader who passes by