Oceanic

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We explored the oceans of poetry to provide you the best poems about the ocean from over a decades of English-language poetry. So if you’re ready let’s dive into these best poems about the sea. 1. A Miracle to Behold Desire is also the main current of The European Eel, Steve Ely’s lush recreation of the incredible transatlantic migration eels undertake to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Little is known about their ocean-going lives, but in Ely’s telling it becomes a testimony to life’s irrepressibility. A female eel will gradually consume her own body to fuel the journey, “reducing herself to the seed of her species’ future”. It culminates in an ecstatic account of eel sex, coiling in billowing clouds of golden milt and ova, “sparks from the cornucopian flame / of Archaea’s unkillable, dark pleroma”. Contemporary Pacific Islander poetry most commonly includes oral and written poetry composed by authors who are genealogically linked to the indigenous people of the areas of the Pacific known as Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. While many of these poets live within the “Pacific Basin,” there are also many residing in the United States. Because Pacific Islanders are one of the fastest growing populations in America, it is essential that we read Pacific literature, which has for too long been invisible within discussions of American and Global poetry. Let us now go through some poems on ocean in English. These poems about the sea remind us that oceans have an impact on our lives and livelihoods of our loved ones, no matter how far off the beach we reside. 1. The Ocean

In each case, the form finds the poem’s content—and vice versa—with such ease and grace that one almost wonders how poems concerning the end of summer (“End-of-Summer Haibun”) or separation from a child (“Travel Mommy Ghazal”) ever found other shapes to begin with. In “Secrets of the Sea,” Assan provides commentary on the Syrian refugee crisis. The poem is for Alan Kurdi , a three-year-old Syrian boy whose name made global headlines in 2015 after he drowned in the mediterranean sea, but it is also for all the other refugees that lost their lives. Assan says Kurdi’s name changed the world, while others’ names remain “secrets of the sea.” Cultural strands are woven into the DNA of her strange, lush… poems. Aphorisms… from another dimension.” — New York Times

Unlike W. B. Yeats in ‘Lapis Lazuli’, where the poet sees the robustness of civilisation embodied by the rebuilding of culture and societies over different historical periods, Housman emphasises the ultimate futility of building empires or making anything. Her poems invoke a sense of connectedness… Nezhukumatathil weaves meditations on parenting and family-making among her lavishly rendered evocations of flora and fauna… Nezhukumatathil’s voice is consistent in its awe.” — Publishers Weekly Reading is tidal, and each tide brings with it new associations. It is difficult now to read John Masefield’s Sea-Fever without thinking of bleaching coral, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner without picturing Chris Jordan’s photographs of dead albatross, their stomachs full of brightly coloured plastic. “‘ Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” but avian flu is decimating seabird populations. Fig. 7. AC 84-5/6, “The Brain – is wider than the / Sky –,” about summer 1863. Courtesy of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. For link, see: https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:1457/asc:1469 Yet this story of a mariner and his crew, who suffer terrible misfortunes after they ill-advisedly kill an albatross, has become a classic long narrative poem and one of the defining poems of the English Romantic movement. In Watchet in Somerset, there is a statue of the Ancient Mariner, marking the place where Coleridge conceived of the idea for the poem.

These beautiful short ocean poems inform us of our inner strength and tenacity, as well as our love and weaknesses. They assist us in weathering difficult times and trials, knowing that calmer waves will eventually replace the storm. ‎ 1. The Sea

Time and time again, nature has proven that the deepest parts of the ocean are more serene and holds a lot of secrecy, that’s why people dive deep to have a taste of these mysteries. Fig. 3. While the original manuscript of this poem is lost, the above fragment (AC 169, about 1880?) is extant. The ocean’s grandeur and beauty are breathtaking. From scientists and chemists to explorers and mariners, the ocean and its complete ecology captivate, enthrall, and delight multitudes of people all over the world. Oil on canvas. Frame: 36 1/2 in x 33 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; 92.7 cm x 85.1 cm x 11.4 cm; Sight: 23 1/2 in x 20 1/2 in; 59.7 cm x 52.1 cm. AC EDM 2003.216.

Fig. 2. AC 506, “Water makes many / Beds,” about 1877. Courtesy Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. For link, see: https://acdc.amherst.edu/search/Water+makes+many+bedsOceanic] is an important work, both for its poetic merits and for its incisive capture of the increasingly precarious nature of life, both human and nonhuman, on this planet.” — Ploughshares Fig. 5. AC 82-7/8, “On this wondrous sea – sailing silently –,” about summer 1858. Courtesy of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. For link, see: https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:15595/asc:15604 Ocean has also found its place in several poems as well. Here are some of those simple ocean poems. 1. The Ocean Although he’s often thought of as a somewhat gloomy poet, Larkin (1922-85) had his tenderer, more celebratory moments too, such as in this, the opening poem from his 1974 collection High Windows, describing the annual ritual of the British family seaside holiday. Oceanic is a generous, romantic, and ambitious look at the different stages of life, and how we experience the love and wonder that lead us to become more fully realized and compassionate as we grow each decade… [it’s] Nezhukumatathil’s most cohesive collection to date, as she takes her prior preoccupations and dissects them in new ways that invite, as all of her work does, a sense of marvel and astonishment.” — Tin House

The acrostic form involves the tying together of the poem’s flow with its subject, thus encouraging children to simultaneously consider the meanings, sounds, spellings, and grammatical functions of words. For instance, this summer acrostic poem template will challenge children to think of a sentence which is not only in the summer spirit but also fits the acrostic form. Adiba Jaigirdar is an Irish-Bangladeshi writer, poet, and teacher. She resides in Dublin, Ireland and has an MA in postcolonial studies. She is currently working on her own postcolonial novel and hopes that someday it will see the light of day outside of her computer screen. The ocean has played an important part in poetry from its inception, which explains why there are so many ocean poems in literature. It’s simple to understand why. ‎the phrase cry me a river of tears is never taken seriously. I don't just cry rivers I cry oceans, I cry all seven oceans because sadness is something that consumes me. grief fills my body and flows through my bloodline. on the countless trips to the hospital they put an IV through my arm filled with tears. my only comfort zone is my bathtub. the cold porcelain flooring against my naked body. having warm water flow over the top of my head like a waterfall, a waterfall I've cried so many times. the indent of my body will always remain on my bathtub. the indent consumes my body and holds me so tightly I do not feel the need to move. I feel so comfortable here because it is the only time someone ever holds me. the warm waterfall turns cold and I feel like I'm in my heart. warm surrounded by fluid makes me cold to the bone. I peel myself off of the indented bathroom floor. I lay in bed for hours. my head against my pillow and my body against memory foam mattress that absorbs my body as gravity pulls me down so I cannot move even if I tried. my tears flood my pillows along with muttered screams and sobs. blood stains my blankets along with cigarette burns. I find myself crying an ocean, except the ocean is absorbing my body and I find myself falling so deep in the ocean and I cannot breathe anymore. my lungs feel like they're about to burst like a grenade and my heart is about to give out. the pitter patter my racing heart as it gives its last bout. it surrenders as the waves of the ocean try to mask my carcass. if you ever need me I will be in the sand of the ocean as it is my new bed. the layers of seaweed that will soon form over my lifeless body. I am the only remains from a skeleton sunken city. I am a graveyard that no one comes to visit. my hollow chest feels like a tree that no one notices in a forest. my fingers feel like carrots at the end of a salad bowl no one wants to eat. my blood feels like the last sip of a coffee that no one will drink. so I cry over my unwanted remains. I cry another ocean and find myself in an endless cycle. hopeless and never changing. The ocean has had a very significant role in poetry since the dawn of poetry itself. It’s easy to see why. The ocean — both wild and calm, dangerous and beautiful — is a made up of contradictions and mystery. Ocean poems can not only be dedicated to capturing the heart of sea, but to metaphors for love and trauma, among many other things. More than that, the ocean has played a role in the history of many cultures, making it a setting that is both intimately personal, and vastly universal. only my mind is not present and I can't control where I go, I can't remember where I go, im mindless. Im walking on an ocean. An ocean of happiness I can't baptize myself in. The ocean gets more wet except the ocean is filled with sweat, sweat from running from all my problems. Exhaustion fills my body. That is the pure moment I realize I am asleep, the wetness is beads of sweat on my forehead from the 16th night terror this week. This act of “glancing down” resonates in powerful consequences. The final lines of “Invitation” offer a question—“Who knows what will happen next?”—that also presents a significant opportunity. What happens next, it turns out, is not only the possibility of a different perception of the sea but also the potential for sensing the world itself entirely and radically anew: