Tag Archives: water

Icy Froth

Icy froth crashes over unshod feet,

Numbing and cramping as they slowly sink into sea-washed sand,

Pant legs soaked with limitless brine.

The gale whips up waves dressed in white one after another,

Chilling me to the bone with cold excitement,

Breath and spirit become one with the undulation.

Sting of salt spray does not deter as I spy the fractured horizon,

Dreaming of serving on the distant freighter

Rising and falling with the swells on it’s way to exotic ports.

What better life is there than to work shoulder-to-shoulder with your brethren

Under sun and on sea,

Conjoined with the natural forces overhead and underfoot.

Were it not for you my love– this destiny I would have fulfilled,

But alas…it was not to be,

For I love you more than the sand, the sun and the sea.

So here I stand,

Looking out on what might have been,

Joyful for what is

And content with what will be.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Paradise – A Haiku

Image Credit: startedsailing.com

Image Credit: startedsailing.com

Breeze catches my sails

Crystal waters lap the hull

This is paradise

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

In the Wake of Barnegat Bay

clamming

Clamming on the Barnegat Bay

Marsh grass swaying to summer’s breeze music,

Wafting smell of sulfur…cattail decay permeates the air,

Skeleton legged egrets skate over muck and mire,

Silently stalking, without trace or print,

Fisher of frog and killie and eel satiate the craw,

Atypical beauties gliding amongst driftwood and jellyfish.

Gulls chatter wakes the quiet of the rustling reeds,

Circling, cawing in haphazard patterns above the sea,

Groupies to fish laden boats anxious for port,

Unafraid…swooping to touch the hand that feeds,

Scraps of innards, heads, tails treats for the monochrome crew,

Relentless in their acrobatic aerial pursuit.

Sullen skies harvest chilly rains, whipping winds churn the bay to froth,

Whitecaps endlessly roll across turbulent waters,

Crashing to port and starboard in a symphony of wind-swept spray,

Biting hardened faces, skin soaked..raw with each pull of the rake and tong,

Muscle aches, such minute reward, so honorable the sacrifice,

For bushels of clams…the elusive cherry stone.

Brutality of summer’s heat nor winter’s cold deters,

Boats of wood, chipping and weathered, flat-bottom or “v”,

Designs dreamt in the mind of another century,

Purpose built, purpose born, rugged men, bred for the rigors,

Calloused, barnacle laden, weaned from the land, cast to the sea

Baymen one and all, men to their briny cores.

Bay of cedar and Atlantic salt, treacherous inlet throat,

Darkened by sources of origins mixed,

Nectar of life to fish and fowl, baymen and boater, lovers of marine,

Beauty whilst beast when stoked by storm,

Life giving…treacherous for the ignorant and uninitiated,

Wondrous, mysterious…Barnegat Bay.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

* I grew up along the Barnegat Bay, in New Jersey and worked as a commercial clammer for a number of years.  This type of work is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly was honest work and taught me the value of persistence.  This is an absolutely beautiful area to live in and now that I live in the desert, I realize how much I love and miss the bay and ocean.

The Mirage – Haiku

Credit - graphics.stanford.edu

Credit – graphics.stanford.edu

Blazing sun blinding

Vultures circle overhead

Glad its a mirage

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Hostile Nature

pollution

Image credit – thewaterq.com

The exploit of nature

Indiscriminate as if it has no consequence

Acting as master as if it were all under control

When all is well, you belittle the tree huggers

Crucifying compassion and caution as a gauntlet to progress and profit

Until progress yields to disaster

Igniting the public relations machine

Blame is never placed with self but on others

Minimizing damage to the image is paramount

The environment expendable

Poisoned water, tarballs, dead zones

Headlines today soon to be forgotten by the gluttonous masses

Creatures of habit bribed by unscrupulous liars

Clearly the cleanliness of air and water are of only temporary concern

Instant gratification is worth sacrificing the progeny

These behemoths think nothing of the living world

It is here to be conquered at any cost

To be stripped bare of the resources it has so long protected

Coal, oil, gas

Eighteenth century fossils lobbied to buy the people’s government

Elected officeholders answerable to none

These scoundrels throw our prospects to the wolves

Tearing at the plunder as if a rabid pack

The citizenry kept appeased by hollow promises lays in coma

Promised to reap the rewards of the spoils

But at what loss must the gain aspire

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Gift of Simplicity

By D. R. DiFrancesco

The suns glare blinding in it sheer radiance,

Ricocheting off the snow white froth as it lays claim to another piece of shore,

Drawn back to it’s primordial beginnings,

Only to reemerge in it’s own time in some distant land.

 

The song of the gulls,

Circling and floating in anticipation of their next meal,

A beautiful natural thing to behold,

Lives boiled down to simplicity.

 

The snap of the blue claw crab,

Rouses me from my trance,

Unafraid, claws raised in defense of his little piece of turf,

Only to surrender it to return to the sea.

 

Could it be that there are lessons to be learned,

Wisdom in nature so often ignored,

Giving prominence to our petty and corrupt selves,

Hollowed out by our material love.

 

As high tide comes rushing in,

New shore from distant lands makes this beach it’s home,

I am beckoned to take leave,

Walking away with a gift greater than I dared ask for.