Firemajic's Daily Dose of Poetic Inspiration

[Firemajic]

Poetry is my passion, and in this thread I want to share some of my favorite poems with you. Hopefully these poems will inspire your passion, comfort you, make you smile and make your day a little brighter.

Poetry is about expression, the expression of our intimate thoughts, joys and sorrows. Poetry is our voice. I believe we are all poets, some have yet to find their voice. Some voices have been silenced, forever...


Feel free to comment if you wish, I will include from time to time, my own personal thoughts, share your thoughts with me, Feel free to just read, enjoy and allow these words a home in your heart.

[Firemajic]

The child, half naked in the tawny sand,
is digging with a concentrated frown
into the heart of things six inches down,
reaching for China with an eager hand.

Her curly head is bent beneath immense
canyons of blue air, unknown and deep.
The ocean sighs and mutters in it's sleep
and sprawls beside her kneeling innocence.

How dare she trust the sky and the sea and the earth
as if they were three playmates in a row?
And yet she may be right. Perhaps they know,
as I do, her incalculable worth.


Author: Herbert Merrill

[Absolem]

The child, half naked in the tawny sand,
is digging with a concentrated frown
into the heart of things six inches down,
reaching for China with an eager hand.

Her curly head is bent beneath immense
canyons of blue air, unknown and deep.
The ocean sighs and mutters in it's sleep
and sprawls beside her kneeling innocence.

How dare she trust the sky and the sea and the earth
as if they were three playmates in a row?
And yet she may be right. Perhaps they know,
as I do, her incalculable worth.


Author: Herbert Merrill

I love that poem. So warm. I've never seen a rhyme scheme like that before.

[Firemajic]

I love that poem. So warm. I've never seen a rhyme scheme like that before.

Yes, I love the rhyme scheme the poet used for this poem, unobtrusive and gentle...

I love the imagery in this poem, it sets the mood and the scene... the vast sleepy ocean, the vast endless sky, and the tiny child kneeling on the sand, lost in the moment, innocently unaware of her own greatness and worth.

[Firemajic]

Like the shadow-bird descending on
tenebrous borrowed wings beneath
the Gull,
I ride the wind, plumed
in feathers plucked from dreams,
and plagiarized from words
in books and Whale's songs.

Knowing only sun and sea,
breathing only ocean air,
I live the lie. Flying home.
Soaring there with
effigies,
whose dusky quills
I dip into my blood,
to log my flight.

To pen my poetry.


Author: Helen Snider
First Place Award Winner

[Phil Istine]

The child, half naked in the tawny sand,
is digging with a concentrated frown
into the heart of things six inches down,
reaching for China with an eager hand.

Her curly head is bent beneath immense
canyons of blue air, unknown and deep.
The ocean sighs and mutters in it's sleep
and sprawls beside her kneeling innocence.

How dare she trust the sky and the sea and the earth
as if they were three playmates in a row?
And yet she may be right. Perhaps they know,
as I do, her incalculable worth.


Author: Herbert Merrill

I loved reading this foray into childhood innocence. It evoked a few fleeting memories of my own moments when I could lose myself.
The first line of the final stanza did pull me up a bit though. I think it was the line length. Perhaps, "How dare she trust the sky, the/and sea, the/and earth ..." (either "the" OR "and") might have worked better for me, but perhaps the poet was trying to avoid the pauses that usually go with the commas.

A lovely read - thanks for posting, Julia.

[Firemajic]

I loved reading this foray into childhood innocence. It evoked a few fleeting memories of my own moments when I could lose myself.
The first line of the final stanza did pull me up a bit though. I think it was the line length. Perhaps, "How dare she trust the sky, the/and sea, the/and earth ..." (either "the" OR "and") might have worked better for me, but perhaps the poet was trying to avoid the pauses that usually go with the commas.

A lovely read - thanks for posting, Julia.

Thank you, Phil... I agree with you, I would have cut out a few words in this poem... The poetry I will be posting in this thread will be the work of little known poets, they most likely will never be famous, their voices will most likely fade to obscurity. But these poems touched me, and the messages became a part of me, thrilled me, comforted me, expressed things that I could not... made me see beauty in the mundane. These poems spoke to me and changed me. This is my language and my passion.
I am so glad you enjoyed reading this quiet poem, and I was delighted that you critiqued it.

[Phil Istine]

Like the shadow-bird descending on
tenebrous borrowed wings beneath
the Gull,
I ride the wind, plumed
in feathers plucked from dreams,
and plagiarized from words
in books and Whale's songs.

Knowing only sun and sea,
breathing only ocean air,
I live the lie. Flying home.
Soaring there with
effigies,
whose dusky quills
I dip into my blood,
to log my flight.

To pen my poetry.


Author: Helen Snider
First Place Award Winner

Wow! Inspirational and dreamy.
I love the way the poem flows. Normally, I would baulk at having a word like "only" close together on consecutive lines, but it works really well, particularly due to the assonance with "ocean".
I like the way she seems to switch effortlessly from simile to metaphor.
Also, the use of "quill" both as feather and writing implement. I guess the "dip into my blood" is a statement about giving her heart and soul to her writing. Remind me of anyone ...?

A lovely piece which I may have totally misunderstood (I'm good at that).

[Firemajic]

Wow! Inspirational and dreamy.
I love the way the poem flows. Normally, I would baulk at having a word like "only" close together on consecutive lines, but it works really well, particularly due to the assonance with "ocean".
I like the way she seems to switch effortlessly from simile to metaphor.
Also, the use of "quill" both as feather and writing implement. I guess the "dip into my blood" is a statement about giving her heart and soul to her writing. Remind me of anyone ...?

A lovely piece which I may have totally misunderstood (I'm good at that).

Haha.... Phil...

Here's the thing... I will never meet the poets who have touched my life and my heart... THEY will never know ME. They will NEVER know what their words meant to me.... but, while reading their words, for a moment we shared something intimate, and timeless. That is why I write poetry, yeah my work is dark and I deal with ugly emotions. But what if someone reads one of my poems and for a while, they felt less alone... What more could one aspire to...

[Ariel]

I loved reading this foray into childhood innocence. It evoked a few fleeting memories of my own moments when I could lose myself.
The first line of the final stanza did pull me up a bit though. I think it was the line length. Perhaps, "How dare she trust the sky, the/and sea, the/and earth ..." (either "the" OR "and") might have worked better for me, but perhaps the poet was trying to avoid the pauses that usually go with the commas.

A lovely read - thanks for posting, Julia.

The poet wrote "the sky and the sea and the earth" to emphasize the size difference (and thus the trust the child unknowingly shows) between the child and these things.