Flat Earth (poem – song revisited)

So, another poem prompt at dVerse Poets, this one from Merril, about boats and boating.

“The prompt for today – write a poem about boats/ships, boating of any sort. You may write and ekphrastic poem using one of the given paintings for inspiration. There is no set form, write in free verse, write a haibun, Golden Shovel it, write a sonnet, a cinquain or a ballad”

We have a production music website that my boss and I use at work (I am a radio production guy) and sometimes I will come across instrumentals that catch my ear, maybe not quite right for the commercial I’m in the midst of trying to build, but some things that I just like and then save for future “borrowing” reference as I will sometimes write some lyrics to them and then do a bit of “songing” and producing (along with song parodies, though serious topical things, not silly ones).  

Well, I couldn’t really come up with anything new for this prompt (sorry Merril) as I became stuck instead on something from a couple of years ago where I did what I just mentioned, write something to an instrumental I had saved for myself and then some “songing”. I tried to equate things that have weighed on me, still weigh on me, with the heaviness of the sea, drowning and a one filled with sea monsters as I’ve always been fascinated with the stories of myth and legend of sailors and their sea monsters and even fears of sailing off the edge of the earth …

I thought to maybe take the lyrics of this and pare them down some into more of a “proper” poem but then I thought maybe it was already poem enough, just in tune.

I know this is a bit outside of the prompt but it still does involve the sea so …

Flat Earth

I looked out onto the water

To a horizon that’s always just one crest away

It keeps stretching getting further

With every stroke ta-ken

Till soon a-gain  

Soon

Just

Another day now

To leave me wonder

Do I even know what I want there

If I swim out

To the edge now

Skirting sea demons

But still fall off of this flat earth

Into space

What would I hope to find

—

Maybe a lover

From my immortal days

One blithely left behind to fend her heart’s ways

Maybe my father and a proper goodbye

Say sorry for not being there not looking to the

Sky  

Or maybe Mother have her wake from her daze

And maybe recognize the world once again

Or am I just treading waves hoping they hold

Long enough

To skirt more demons

Before I fall

—

I looked again now

Onto the water

Horizon still always just one crest away

It keeps stretching getting further

With every stroke ta-ken

Till soon a-gain 

Soon

—

Maybe there’s still more air to gasp

Grasp and flail swim up from beneath the heavy waves

Back from off the edge of a flat earth

From space  

And swim back

Take on sea demons face to face