Salt-Crusted Cliffs | Teen Ink

Salt-Crusted Cliffs MAG

October 27, 2011
By AudreyM PLATINUM, Delaware, Ohio
AudreyM PLATINUM, Delaware, Ohio
41 articles 1 photo 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I exist as I am, that is enough." -Whitman


A carved hollow
of the cliffs,
a crooked elbow
in the sheer face
of stone,
lover to the sea
in a residual embrace
like the weeping of the
gray-faced gulls
on chilly mornings.

The lowing of
lobster boats leaving the bay
for the open whale roads of
the Atlantic.
Bidding them godspeed the
jagged-faced outcroppings
meet the waves with a resounding
thrashing. Somewhere a seashell
is without its echo.

The sobriety of a Sunday morning,
the sea shaking off sleep,
dashing the remnants of a
rough night off onto
the shoals. Shipwrecks
lie here in salt-crusty disrepair
from decades past
and days of an angrier, younger
body of crested swaying waves.

The ships roll across
the reflection of thunderheads
in color and temperament
in the early dawn, no break for
a sunrise to color the
rumbling deep,
to splash the barren cliffs
with a blush of morning.

But the saltwater winds
still whistle work shanties
as the sailors cast lines
in the sea.


The author's comments:
The Sea.

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This article has 5 comments.


Blynn SILVER said...
on Oct. 15 2012 at 10:56 am
Blynn SILVER, Waco, Texas
9 articles 0 photos 97 comments
This is so beautiful :') I love it! All of my poems tend to end up being about the ocean... this is a really great poem, good job! 

on Jun. 23 2012 at 9:29 pm
JaliyaBelle GOLD, New York City, New York
16 articles 7 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
It's a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar. -Anais Nin

My favorite line is "to splash the barren cliffs with a blush of morning". great work! really vivid, i feel like i'm actually there.

EricH PLATINUM said...
on Mar. 27 2012 at 5:01 pm
EricH PLATINUM, Madison Heights, Virginia
23 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
And before our world goes over the brink,
Teach the believers how to think.








-Philip Appleman

Most of the poem is JUST OK in my opinion. Maybe it's just too abstract for me. However, the final stanza is simply brilliant and one of my favorites read on this website.

on Mar. 27 2012 at 7:50 am
Luv2WriteNO1 BRONZE, Covington, Louisiana
4 articles 0 photos 11 comments

Favorite Quote:
Shoot for the moon even if you miss you'll land among the stars

This was REALLY good!

on Mar. 19 2012 at 2:21 pm
mwurzer4 DIAMOND, Rochester, New York
65 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Thou! thy truest type of grief is the gently falling leaf."
-Edgar Allan Poe

i can see it, and i like what i see