Fish Poems
Litany
by Billy Collins
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
......
Silver
by Walter de la Mare
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
......
I'M Explaining A Few Things
by Pablo Neruda
You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?
and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?
and the rain repeatedly spattering
its words and drilling them full
of apertures and birds?
I'll tell you all the news.
I lived in a suburb,
a suburb of Madrid, with bells,
and clocks, and trees.
......
Travel
by Robert Louis Stevenson
I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow;--
Where below another sky
Parrot islands anchored lie,
And, watched by cockatoos and goats,
Lonely Crusoes building boats;--
Where in sunshine reaching out
Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosque and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,
......
Gone Fishin'
by Delmar Pepper
I've finished life's chores assigned to me,
So put me on a boat headed out to sea.
Please send along my fishing pole
For I've been invited to the fishin' hole.
Where every day is a day to fish,
To fill your heart with every wish.
Don't worry, or feel sad for me,
I'm fishin' with the Master of the sea.
......
Turquoise
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Turquoise slow, rippling
freehearted and tenacious;
Impassively sail
by the aural yellowlegs
Dolphinfish are gone sleekly.
THE POND AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA
by Ayatullah Nurjati
At the mouth of the river, where freshwater hesitated before surrendering to salt, lay a vast pond born not of nature but of human ambition. It was engineered—measured, dredged, compacted, and sealed with intention. To human eyes, it was entertainment.
To human eyes, it was entertainment.
To investors, it was potential.
To officials, it was development.
To the fish, it was a border.
By day, the pond shimmered beneath a fractured sky. Towers of glass rose like artificial cliffs, their mirrored skins scattering sunlight back into the water, confusing even the most seasoned migratory instincts. Condominiums stood with pride, as if they had grown from coral rather than concrete. Balconies hovered over the estuary like spectators awaiting a performance.
But the pond did not perform. It endured.
......
Dusk Paddling
by Ayatullah Nurjati
There is hope in the fishermen's qualified causality sketches
Nature seems to be always erratic, sometimes shady sometimes turbulent
Similar to the desire of the fisherman who always ups and downs in making a
living
The engine on the boat can no longer be used because it had been already the
oldest
The fishing nets remain faithful even though they are sometimes torn
The boat he paddles never complains
Fish are also willing and willing to be netted and hooked for the survival of their
......
Miracles
by Walt Whitman
WHY! who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the
water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love--or sleep in the bed at night with
any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
......
I Sing The Body Electric
by Walt Whitman
I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the
Soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal
themselves;
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the
dead?
......
