ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Drifting…


Do you sometimes get the notion
You are rocking on the ocean
When you’re really in a dull suburban street?
Do you ever get the feeling
That your hull is madly heeling,
And it’s quite a challenge staying on your feet?

Do you sometimes sense while napping
You can hear the gentle lapping
Of the wavelets on the timbers of your ship?
Have you ever felt while dozing
That the ocean is imposing,
And you’re nothing but a thimble in its grip?

Do you ever think while sleeping
At the bow are dolphins leaping,
And you’re gazing at their antics from the rail?
Do you sometimes rather wonder
That you’ve made a shocking blunder,
And you’re racing through a storm with too much sail?

Are you stunned great expeditions
Can arise from such conditions
As prevail when upon your bed you lie;
That you’re sure you’re on the water,
Unrestrained by bricks and mortar,
When reality dictates you’re high and dry?


© Stephen Whiteside 20.12.2016

Love it! "Drifting " is a very cleverly put together, witty and concise poem.

Perhaps the writer is suggested as being someone who has had a hard night out at a Christmas function and everything is swaying!? I thought maybe so.

I really like it. A great read.

Thanks, Gary.

I love it, Stephen! Another quirky, imaginative piece

I get this feeling in two ways - neither of them related to alcohol! One is the euphoric feeling that comes with completing a poem I've wanted to write for a long time, or alternatively, a poem that has come unexpectedly "from nowhere" and has surpassed my expectations of how it would unfold.

The other (more literal, less salubrious) is via my chronic (and seemingly incurable) vertigo!

Do you have anything you'd like to prescribe??? (just kidding)

Cheers
Shelley

Thanks, Shelley - I largely wrote this while I was drifting off to sleep, if the truth be known!

In that case you're lucky you remembered it! I write exceptional verse in the middle of the night (ha ha) and forget it all before morning!!!

Actually your poem also reminded me of that sensation you get after you really have been out in a boat. You lie down at night and still feel the roll of the waves!

Cheers
Shelley

Shelley, these days I keep the phone beside my bed and I can use the video on the camera to record myself reciting any lines I might choose to write during the night - then I can simply transcribe and edit them at my leisure the following day. Works really well.

Great idea!!