My head is full of the roar of the rolling waves:
The air is full of water, all hazed with mist,
And my lungs are full of salt air and I crave
The sea, all laced with foam, with pale spindrift
The air is full of water, all hazed with mist,
The storm is gentling now along the shore,
The sea is laced with foam, with pale spindrift,
And each wave curls like a grey cat’s paw
The storm is gentling now along the shore,
The sky is white, there is no sun today,
While each wave curls like a grey cat’s paw,
The sea is blank-faced, dull, somehow opaque
The sky is white, there is no sun today,
It’s hard to say just where the ocean ends,
The sea is blank-faced, dull, somehow opaque
And all the light is pale, and cloud-softened
It’s hard to say just where the ocean ends
In the wild bleakness of the empty strand,
And all the light is pale, and cloud-softened
above the sea’s wild anger and the silent sand
In the wild bleakness of the empty strand
See the sharp- winged flight of a black-headed gull
above the sea’s wild anger, and the silent sand,
the shrill cry of the petrel, wheeling, heart full
see the sharp winged flight of a black headed gull –
my lungs are full of salt air, and I crave
the shrill cry of the petrel, wheeling, heart full –
my head is full of the roar of the rolling waves
Jilly inspires us to use repetition in our poetry tonight. I have a slight obsession with the pantoum – it’s such a tricky form to get to flow smoothly. So that – obviously – is what we’ve ended up with tonight.
This is a wonderful pantoun… the repetition of phrases but also sea and air makes me think of the subtle difference between each wave… rolling rolling.
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The repeated lines always strike me as being like waves, so appropriate here!
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Splendid! I felt as though I was there on the shore, full of sights and sounds and smells galore amid the gray.
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This just rolls and rolls like the waves – you took me to the sea with your bright imagery! I must admit that for one who loves forms, I cannot master this one; I admire your ability with it! Simply lovely!
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The sea is the place for poetry tonight. I was at the ocean last weekend, and we had gorgeous weather. Our Pacific beaches face Hawaii and Japan, and the spindrift tides roll their refuse in on frothy waves, rolling and crashing at our feet with military precision.
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That’s a poem in itself!
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Nice comparison between the sea and sand: “above the sea’s wild anger and the silent sand”
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beautiful poem evoking remembrances of days spent on a quiet beach listening to the music of the waves. Nice use of repition.
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Lovely pantoum. I haven’t written one in a while. Thanks for reminding me of this form.
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Maybe it’s the form. Whenever I write a pantoum it ends up nautical. This one is especially so; wonderfully so!
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Aw, thank you. I think the repetitive back and forth conjures up waves.
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Yes, it does.
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A beautiful invocation of the sea, Sarah! A beautiful Pantoum!
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Love the rhythm of this ….the description…so well done.
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What a lovely form, bringing out all the energy and motion from the roar of the rolling waves. Love your work Sarah!
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love the imagery
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I love your pantoum, Sarah! I can hear the rolling waves rising and falling on the shore and see the ‘sea, all laced with foam, with pale spindrift’. Perfect use of repetition and rhyme!
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Such dynamics in this storm tossed scene – it’s like the form of the poem holds us in place – while the gull and sea and wind storm about. Richly evocative.
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i like the lull of the sea and any poem that describes the sea so beautifully as this really captures my heart, the waves of your lines are so gentle to me
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Splendid pantoum, Sarah! Every part of water filling the hunger in us.
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