Immortal Ocean Poem by Marck Riggins

Who among you will traverse the waters' full voice?
When beside swells, droplets dwell, spray on ruin
By fine sound mind, relieved and rejoice
Allot dregs to wayfarers, fanciful, marooned

Dream of Fair Isles

Farewells and forbidding from friend and kin
Tears foreshadow the salt in brisk air
Small talk of treasure without measure begin
Simpleton dreams are harmless it seems
As officers gauge work to sought after leisure
Surmising the arising of a mutiny scare
On the Lark, before dark: humble affair

Glide far by the breeze on the field of these seas
For jewels are fair winds to all seekers
Come blue coastal lagoons, men find doubloons
By riches grow none the meeker

The watches' command shows strength by demand
And these stout come about, work for pittance
The waves pitch the Lark, as the push of a hand
Brave and bullied seek shallows admittance

From the mainland to sweet fair islands
For these rugged hearts, seas' imploring
No clue to the rue that might be due
Is the swarthy mind ignoring?

Crews' wanting fabric of desperate lives
Are weathered planks and foothold, sure
The gales of a squall thwart this ship run tall
Sun in warm waters: tropical cure

Mutiny on the Wind

Hear you by pleas on wild frothed seas
None the better if currents be turning
Precipitation in sails, trade winds prevail
Muting proud soul that boasts, still yearning

Premature allure by Palmed waters clear
Deep valleys of dark swells must be scaled
Headwinds bring gales and cloudy days drear'
When fate is a sword a ship sails toward
While tomorrows' soft hope is impaled

A read from the crow, as spyglass says "No"
Immortal Ocean buoys the life of these frail
Sailors' fortune: cross torn seas forever
Bitter thoughts grow from whisper to wail

Perilous day chases the night sky
The wind is caressed in tall sheets
Even' wears on, a damp coat dries
On the backs and form of crude and discreet
As the waves lap the hull, soaking mariner's feet

Passing under the cover of night's veil, starry
And gaunt are the singers of glad song
The shift of their mood is pitiful, sorry
Fighting back cries that the Captain is wrong

Ever-less strong is heavens' host throng
Uncounted, but binds the ship on a course
To follow is hollow in dawn coming bright
Unspoken, harsh token births remorse

Hope Flies On

Their day-star arrives, Immortal Ocean horizon
Surface of gold mirrors a gate to the sun
In despairing gaze, psyches of haze, all eyes on
White bird of deliverance, as shot from a gun

Comfort, small, spying of Albatross flying
Wings perpetually impel to earth's end
Fortune's call fading, promise evading
Unabated course, when gusts are sourced
Camouflaged in white-caps, to blend

Narnelaine

Sail on as bold sailors and gather for dance
While on jeweled sunrise is a specter of chance
Gladness turned madness, and inspiring vain
She's full sail with guns thunder: Narnelaine

Pale is concern of a crew discontented:
Like the hand of a long lost friend
For the terror of dark that preys on the Lark
A stealth black foe rains tales of woe
Leaving many a widow to fend in her dark

Narnelaine courts these paths in her sea
A mistress aborting to fathoms deep home
In her day, some say she had reason to be
Intrepid Invader who stalked all who balked
And Huntress prevailing o'er all she saw roam

Her speed and cunning are due preceded
By a thirst to be slaked and mistakes conceded
As fear runs afore her infamous form
She's a gale and a tale of dragoness storm


Circles helm about with volley stout
Replies Lark's retort of lesser grain
Infection from beating as ocean is eating
Through the hull and soul and blood and vein
From the relentless offense by the Narnelaine

Main sheets are riddled as tall masts splinter
Men shriek a "Heave" and "Ho", strained
Great was their crying, ships hands defying
Orders to return fire, unexplained
Leaving said stations as had been trained
They flee in white terror from Narnelaine

Fragments, shards, of lives fallen hard
Float, scattered among the once living
On the surface of ocean churn dark emotion
As tearful bereaved, reeling, deceived
Hug remains of the Lark, none forgiving

Survivors' strong will is saving them still
As hot son rises, no shade o'erhead
Now comes the task of salvaging flask
Cool liquid treasure for which one would kill
Yet, no leisure to drink sweet waters' fill

Death is Her Trade

Delight is filling ships with lead
She listens on high seas
Merchandiser of misery and dread
She bludgeons all hope
While reaping the dead

Salt is the taste from lost hope's waste
For those marveled at booty's attraction
Promises cheap as unto chambers lost, deep
Bright carnival of fruitless distraction

Narnelaine rakes dreamers insane
She shipwrecks only to abandon
Lark's crew is all lost, paid ultimate cost
Her soul is as dark as Hell's canyon

Accounts by amazed sailors spied raised
Black sheets taking fill on the horizon
On billowing sail full speed will prevail
For she closes her prey and cursed be the day
Immortal Ocean bought forth to lay eyes on

Sad wrecks of souls barren around necks wearing
Time's locket that conceals a dead potion
As sea whole declaring, with a storm front glaring
Pitted fate against hearts and devotion
Risked all in Immortal Ocean

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(Written in Temecula CA Jan 17,2010)