Curved arm walls
gentle sea, still wind –
so rest here,
in this harbour –
moon be your lantern,
wave be your pillow –
sleep peaceful,
where stars hang deep
in mirror water,
and mackerel sparkle
in high arching sky –
breathe in,
breathe out,
be the tide.
Lillian is hosting Quadrille Night at the dVerse bar tonight. Come and join us – we’re quadrilling harbours tonight.
Sarah writes poems 
What a wonderful harbor… you play the metaphor of a safe place so well.. love the mackerel sparkle.
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Wish you were sitting right next to me so you could have heard the very audible “ohhhhh” and sigh that escaped my lips at end of reading your poem. This is wonderful! Waves as my pillow…moon as my lantern ….
breathe in,
breathe out,
be the tide,
The wonderful shortness of these three lines….they become the tide moving in and out…I am the reader and I am lulled into the gentleness with your pacing, images, and words here. Just a lovely lovely post to the prompt!
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oh, thank you. i hoped it would be peaceful.
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Amazing peaceful poem. I love the image of the mackerel. The Japanese have a term, sabagumo which means the mackerel sky. Sleep peaceful….this poem is a lovely lullaby.
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Sabagumo – great word! thank you
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Lovely lullaby indeed–your close is so Zen and killer. One cannot emerge from this read still agitated, for it is calming to even the most turbulent of souls; smile.
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lets hope it gets read after yours, then!
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This is wonderful – it is so meditative and peaceful!
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Lovely, Sarah–I love the poem’s ending with those last three lines
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I am feeling the gentle rocking.
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Tides Breathe
in and out Waves
Sweep out and in
Deep and
Shallow
Matters
not as
Long as
Love Breathes
Harbors Whole..:)
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Love the inviting call to a calm rest and peaceful habor. Be the tide…I like the meditation Sarah.
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Oh, your words make me feel at peace. I love this wonderful harbor with such comforting images and sensations — the lantern moon, the wave pillow, mirror water, et al. have such a restful touch to them. The last three lines say it all.
-HA
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So calming, Sarah.
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Framable! I could be the tide – feel quite certain of that.
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I too found this to be a lovely poem. I especially like the lines: “moon be your lantern,
wave be your pillow –”
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This feels like a meditation or a yoga practice with the breath in and out and the peace that imbues your beautiful poem.
Gayle
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What a lovely harbor you paint with your words…calming and serene…love “moon be your lantern, wave be your pillow”
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I like your play on words through out. The moon beams of light and wave pillows stretch the mirror in and out as the tide runs its course. Very nice!
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Like a comforting lullaby…a soothing, gentle way to rock the prompt!
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When I read your quadrille the first time, Sarah, the picture that came into my head was of Mousehole Harbour in Cornwall and then the children’s book The Mousehole Cat, one of my favourite picture-story books. When I read it again, the lines
‘Curved arm walls
gentle sea, still wind –
so rest here’
brought my grandmother to mind. She was always a source of comfort to me.
I love the gorgeous imagery in:,
‘moon be your lantern,
wave be your pillow’
and
‘…stars hang deep
in mirror water,
and mackerel sparkle
in high arching sky’.
I wish I’d read it last night before I went to bed…
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I cry every time I read the Mousehole Cat. Every time. Thank you, I was trying to make an human/harbour hybrid.
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🙂
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like a lullaby – feeling the safety of waves and the calm sea, exactly how a harbour would be
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So peaceful and calming, Sarah ❤️
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‘mackerel sparkle’ lovely! This is the kind of poem I wish I’d written 🙂
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Ah yes, the rest before striking out into deep water is so important! I agree my poem is a perfect riposte to this missive of preparation and rest.
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