Hello, dVerse poets! It’s Merril tending the poets’ bar today. For some reason, I always imagine our virtual bar has a huge fireplace with tables and comfortable chairs, but it also has large windows overlooking a body of water. It could be a lake, river, or ocean. And in that scenic view, if the water isn’t frozen, perhaps there are boats . . .

Some of you know that I often walk along the Delaware River. Sometimes I see people rowing or sailing, and I see cargo ships sailing from the port or pulling into the boatyard assisted by small tugboats. I travel over the Delaware River to get to Philadelphia. Early Philadelphia was situated between the Delaware River (east) and Schuylkill River (west). The Schuylkill flows behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art (not the side with “the Rocky steps”). In the 19th century, rowing became very popular there, and you can still see rowers and racers there today.

Here is the Thomas Eakins painting, “The Biglin Brothers Racing.” The Biglin brothers were the winners of an actual race on the Schuylkill on May 20, 1872. There was a $1000 prize for the winners.

There are many types of boats, of course, and many reasons to be in them. People sail for pleasure and sport, take ferries in places where there are no bridges, or as an alternative to a bridge. There are migrants hoping to find a better life who travel on small boats and large ships. There are huge ships of war, and ocean liners that carry populations larger than my town. There are fishing boats of all sizes. There are enormous cargo ships. There are motorboats that sometimes fly obnoxious signs and gather in rallies. There are kayaks and paddleboats. There were masted whaling boats and steamboats. You can no doubt think of many more examples throughout history.

Here are two very different boat scenes by Odilon Redon:

La Voile Jaune (The Yellow Sail) c. 1905

Fishing Boats, Memory of Venice c. 1908

The prompt for today—write a poem about boats/ships, boating of any sort. You may write an 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.

Many poets have written about boats. I know I have, though I don’t have much experience with them. I don’t sail or row, and I don’t do much traveling. I will leave you with these two lovely poems,

The Green Water by Li Bai

The autumnal moon silently lights the green water;
And the girls all row out into the South Lake to gather
water-lilies;
The lotus blooms so charmingly that it seems to whisper,
And break those girls’ hearts with its pale beauty.
(Translated by Cheng Yu Sun)

“blessing the boats” by Lucille Clifton

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear . . . continued here

When you have written your poem and posted it to your blog. Link the post in Mister Linky. Please mention this dVerse challenge in your post so others can find it and do read others’ work and leave an encouraging comment.