A Sextet of Sails: For my Father

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1001

Abstract

eins, lineage of an Ancient Mariner; you’ve transcended the weight of the albatross, cleaved to your throat, affecting a thirst no ocean could quench; no dry days, bound to the bottle, blind to the message inside</p><p id="8ab9">The bottle that set you adrift; shattered trust — shipwrecked you on unknown, unreachable shores; <i>watch your head</i>, you taught me: beware the boom’s sudden wind-shifts may knock you overboard; but you fell — you lost your balance, lost in your bottle</p><p id="dd55">This is how I want to remember you; hovering starboard, leaning, beyond the hull on your daredevil trapeze, wind-ruffed hair, relishing the dive into the broil; cresting each wave with triumph — jazz in your sails, blues in your soul</p><p id="25b0">You sail now, beyond any harbour, bonded with the drifting tides, suspended between the proud bluster of canvas; the heave and plough of hull, amidst high singing of steel rigging, plucked by winds; poised, at the zenith of an endless wave</p><p id=

Options

"1cbc"><b><i>© Melissa Coffey July 2021</i></b></p><p id="d932"><i>In memory of my father (1944–2016), who struggled most of his life with alcoholism, but loved his little girl, music, the sea and sailing.</i></p><p id="1e83">This poem takes a simple etheree and multiplies it by six to form a “sextet of sails”. For more about how to write an etheree and its possible variations, please see my original prompt:</p><div id="6b2d" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/syllabic-poetry-meet-the-etheree-dda98f5822c8"> <div> <div> <h2>Syllabic Poetry: Meet the Etheree</h2> <div><h3>Guest Prompt — and easy as 1,2,3</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*pyDc9j8cujfXRkRT)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

An elegy in etheree form

Shells glimmer; I follow curving stories with my feet; strewn on the sand, waiting to be reclaimed by the sea; beached like you, in final years, marooned in stagnant waters; a sailor without a boat to sail — away from landlocked cares

My eyes search for the place where sea meets sky; where once I sought a glimpse of your distant sails; little girl in a sun-hat, too young yet for briny baptism by your side; clutching shells like she held the hope you’d return, unscathed, to harbour

You with salt in your veins, lineage of an Ancient Mariner; you’ve transcended the weight of the albatross, cleaved to your throat, affecting a thirst no ocean could quench; no dry days, bound to the bottle, blind to the message inside

The bottle that set you adrift; shattered trust — shipwrecked you on unknown, unreachable shores; watch your head, you taught me: beware the boom’s sudden wind-shifts may knock you overboard; but you fell — you lost your balance, lost in your bottle

This is how I want to remember you; hovering starboard, leaning, beyond the hull on your daredevil trapeze, wind-ruffed hair, relishing the dive into the broil; cresting each wave with triumph — jazz in your sails, blues in your soul

You sail now, beyond any harbour, bonded with the drifting tides, suspended between the proud bluster of canvas; the heave and plough of hull, amidst high singing of steel rigging, plucked by winds; poised, at the zenith of an endless wave

In memory of my father (1944–2016), who struggled most of his life with alcoholism, but loved his little girl, music, the sea and sailing.

This poem takes a simple etheree and multiplies it by six to form a “sextet of sails”. For more about how to write an etheree and its possible variations, please see my original prompt: