Tag Archives: ocean images

“Shore Leave” for The Sunday Whirl # 691, Jan 26, 2025

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Shore Leave

Calm cliffs rise up from beastly seas to soothe a sailor’s mind,
and rolling hills make memories of a different kind.
Though blades of grass may mimic the sway of restless swells,
more timid winds shake music from a string of tiny bells
woven through the tree limbs and stroke music from thin bars
sticking up out of  the earth, topped off by tiny jars
that lips of breezes play like flutes to create harmony
under the stars that sets the hearts of land-bound sailors free.
These scenes that meet their gazes dispel dark memories
of months of troubled dreaming on tempest-tossed wild seas

Painting by Juan Antonio Pérez Ayala

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 691  today’s words to use are: bell mimic blade gaze hills jar soothe mind stars timid beastly sea

Water Water Everywhere, Mar 6, 2023

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I couldn’t decide which of these to use, so I’m posting them both. The first creates more of an optical illusion–wedding the swimming pool and the ocean. The second makes the division clear and has a more vivid color. Click on photos to enlarge. Which do you prefer?

For The Water Water Everywhere prompt

Ocean Airs

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                        Ocean Airs

The surf and sand we fell down on—
a bed provided by the sea
that smoothed the sheets we lay upon.

Those stories spun out by your tongue
slipped out of you through parted lips—
portals through which your life was sung.

Letter, syllable and word
was carried by the power of breath—
each a lovely soaring bird.

How did they know to find their way
to one who coveted their sound—
their whisper and their plaintive bay?

That night stretched out upon the beach,
finally, we fell to rest
and tell our stories without speech.

For the dVersePoets Pub, we were to write a poem of tercets, using three of these sets of words as ends to lines. I broke the rules and used all five.

SPEECH REST BEACH
ON SEA UPON
WORD BREATH BIRD
WAY SOUND BAY
SUNG LIPS TONGUE

Water, Water Everywhere

1 Reply

 

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

For Granny’s WWE Challenge

Tidelines

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Tidelines

The water laps from shore to shore,
From India to Ecuador,
bringing precious things and more—
dried starfish and an apple core,
a never-ending seashell store.

The water laps up ever higher.
The ocean wave will not expire. 
Tide on tide, it does not tire,
topples chair, douses campfire,
to the wind’s insistent choir,

The water laps around my feet
in the day’s insistent heat,
always destined to repeat,
to the moon’s consistent beat,
this constant rising from its seat.

The water laps against the dock.
Listen to its constant knock,
testing the seawall, block on block,
undiminished by the tock
of nature’s ever-ticking clock.

The water laps by halves and thirds
against the sides of ships and birds.
All its shores it scours, then girds,
undetained by  poets’ words.
To stop the sea? it is absurd!

 

For NaPoWriMo’s “repetition poem” prompt.

 

Water Fetish

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Water Fetish

From my time of birth up to my years septuagenarian,
if it were my choice, I always chose to be riparian.
I hate the sound of silence, for I find it rather static,
but I love the sound of water, be it tidal or erratic.

A little water rushing by or falling from a height
is lulling to my hearing and pleasing to my sight.
It contributes to my happiness, creates a sense of calm—
a sensory diversion that serves me as a balm.

So to add to my contentment, no need for feast or cake.
Just plant me by a river or a waterfall or lake.
There is only one thing that you need to know.
If you want to make me happy, just provide the H20!!!

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

The prompt words today are erratic, feast, riparian and contribute. Here are the links:

https://fivedotoh.com/2018/09/12/fowc-with-fandango-erratic/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/09/12/wednesday-rdp-feast/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/09/12/riparian/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/daily-addictions-2018-week-36/contribute

Undulations

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Click on any photo to enlarge all.

Undulations

The constant undulation and the murmur of the waves.
The crashing of the breakers as they beat against the caves
carved out by the chisel of the water making hives
at the edges of the world that ensconced our busy lives.

It craved us as its audience. It pulled us to its shore.
It calmed our petty grievances with its might roar.
When it chose to rage it could wipe away our world,
sweeping us away as its anger came unfurled.

At other times it lapped at us, assuaging all our pain.
That’s why we returned to it, over and again.
Walked along its edges, pierced its salty deep,
uncovering the secrets so long within its keep.

Every morning it brought treasures to our waiting hands
to examine as we walked along the morning-evened sands.
Dollars from the ocean depths, stars out of the sea––
left there to be taken or to be let be

for the next beachcomber to claim them for their own
to treasure on a mantel what the sea had thrown
like necklaces at mardi gras, cast blindly and for free
for denizens of dry worlds to collect on bended knee.

What we cast back on the waters determines ultimately
what the sea will one day give back to you and me,
and if we do not listen to the truth the tides may tell,
the music of the waves may be our funeral knell.

The prompt today is undulate.

Gloss: Travel Theme

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Gloss: Travel Theme

 

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2016/01/29/travel-theme-gloss/

From the Back: A Photo a Week Challenge

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https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/a-photo-a-week-challenge-from-the-back/

I would have to say that my muse is the sea–but not the open sea. Rather, where it meets the land.

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I love sand and the things it collects: seashells, jellyfish, sand dollars, starfish, puff fish, sand pipers, sea turtles and even the people who collect at the beach.  It is like they have retreated as far as possible–the next step is either a boat or drowning!  They tend to be individuals, slightly odd–kind of like the people from the western world who congregate in third world locales like Africa.  Perhaps they are this age’s pioneers or trappers.

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Oh yes.  I do love the oceanside, the beach.  Salt. Sand.  I love what collects above the beach as well: frigate birds and pelicans, ibises, sun, moon, clouds.  Above are some of the thousands of images of the beach I’ve collected over the past ten years or so.

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Muse.” What subject do you keep coming back to again and again?