Ocean Breeze and Theme

Here is a link to my YouTube channel where I read my poetry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQ13w_ezYI&t=1s

The ocean is in my blood.
A 32-foot sailboat
was my home for a year.
Ventura Marina,
and I, a budding teenage poet.
Dad, the captain,
me and my brother,
first and second mates.
The Pacific spitting salt
on our face.

Fishing lines tied to the dock,
maybe a tom-cod
or a little jack smelt
for breakfast,
if luck was on my side.

Melville in my jacket,
Billy Budd’s tragedy
inked across the pages.

“See, self-defense.
Billy had a speech impediment,
no match for Claggart’s slick,
twisted tongue.”

I brought home my book report,
big red C-minus
circled at the top.
Dad smiled,
taught me the waves,
how plot flows,
theme drifts,
and literary device docked.

I aced literature
from that moment on.

I think of T.S.,
distant relative.
He probably caught a few.
Eyes on the East Coast,
lighthouses and lines,
pondering the next rhyme scheme.

Blood swimming
with memory of current
and the stories
that are born.

Author's Note

https://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Cowboys-Poems-Short-Stories/dp/B0G33PDHBJ/ref=sr
Here is a link to my new book on Amazon, it's called Aluminum Cowboys Poems and Short Stories, and as always, I put readings up on my YouTube channel, link above.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I like your allusion to Melville...that stanza is cool and to me, better than anything he ever wrote.

j.

[Ruth]

I really like this! The last two lines of the first stanza especially stick out to me, I love the visual and word choice of the "Pacific spitting salt", haha. It also sounds really nice with all of the “s” sounds imbedded in those three words. Great poem.

[JessyJacob]

Hi Thomas,

You know how to not to hurt anyone, but i see when a person does so much why he is suffering a lot, by the same people. Is it that you are doing more, or the people are overusing you. Anything which exceeds also hurts, I over loved my son, at his third year, i had to leave and cross 7 seas. I see we should not exploit what we have given, may be i overjoyed with my son, because my son understood me and was there every second and even when far, he misses me so much and I too miss him a lot, now he is understanding things and making me to save money for me....

Loving someone must be not overly expressed and does not more emotionally else will make us cry more in times of tough. Everything needs and to be in limits so that we have strength to tackle life' miseries or troubles.

if i said anything wrong correct me......


Jessy Jacob.

[Soren]

A lovely write that brings on nostalgia. I used to fish with my father and brother and sister. On the boat in the fog or frost or warm spring days we fished and talked fond memories.

[red93]

Well you are talking to the right person when you write about the Sea Thomas. The oceans have always fascinated and awed me from a young age. Exceptional ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️