Covered in oil I can no longer fly,
it's hard to breathe and slowly I'm dying.
Blackened water once as blue as the sky,
can you even see the tears I'm crying?
I share the earth with so many others,
minute is this place that I call my home.
All ships would be gone, given my druthers,
now I sit begging man for cleansing foam.
It's growing darker, I can barely see.
I did nothing wrong to deserve this fate.
Please tell me how to remove this debris,
my tired body cannot bear the weight.
Won't you help me, won't you clean up the sea?
Please God, don't let this be my dying plea!
Joyce Le Lievre
(sunny day)
© Joyce A. Le Lievre, All Rights Reserved
November 27, 2007
Author notes
Sonnet
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines, usually done in (iambic pentameter) it does have a particular rhyming scheme.
Examples of a rhyming scheme:
#1) abab cdcd efef gg
#2) abba cddc effe gg
#3) abba abba cdcd cd
A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.
An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet, rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in some variant pattern, but with no closing couplet.
Usually, English and Italian Sonnets have 10 syllables per line, but Italian Sonnets can also have
11 syllables per line.
French sonnets follow in this same pattern, but normally have 12 syllables per line.
The picture is courtesy of the contest.
In a list
A contest entry
- From the Mouth of a Bird by Poet Muse.
600 points, ended December 7, 2007, 7 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 16 of 16
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Tears, this is both so very sad and very beautiful...
I adore birds and I adore the ocean...
It upsets me to see these beautiful creatures die, and for our amazing gifts of water turn black...
This is a wonderful write and such an urgent message..
Beautiful gold..
Peace and many blessings
~A~
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~A~, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise to me for this one. It was special to me. When asked to speak from the mouth of this poor bird my heart broke into a million pieces. They are so innocent and the mistakes of man kills so much of our wildlife every year. They have as much right as we do to inhabit this earth and they have no defense against disasters such as this. I'm very happy that this could speak to you. Love and God bless, Joyce
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A Masterpiece!
Wow!! I absolutely love the powerful emotion streaming from within the lines of this heart-felt masterpiece!!! Your thoughtful creation has lovingly given this sick and dying bird a voice for all the world to hear. Hopefully this will help to raise the consciousness of all humanity for the plight of these poor, helpless innocents. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful poem with all of us. Not only did you accurately present this sad situation (I had tears in my eyes), you also educated us on the art form of various sonnets... This magnificent piece is worthy of the golden chalice!!!! Peace & Love, Cyn 
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Cyn, Thank you for the applause, the gold
and your lovely words of praise. Sonnets do have a way about them and you asked for the voice of the bird. I tried placing myself in that little guy's position and let it rip from there. I cried writing this one. I kept looking at the picture because I had saved it to my picture file and I left it open to inspire me. You have done a great justice in hosting this. Thank you again ever so much. Love and God bless you my friend, Joyce
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Wow, what an intense poem! The tone, the rhyme scheme, everything adds up so explosively. Amazing work! I agree with Amera that using a sonnet really made it powerful. Best wishes!
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Snow, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise to me for this one. We were asked to speak from the bird's mouth here and I had to put myself in its place to write this. It is a terrible situation that faces our world. Sonnets are powerful and I thought it would be a good choice of form for this one. I'm very happy that it spoke to you so strongly. Amera is a fantastic poet and we have become friends through AP. She is the "Queen of Sonnets" and "Mistress of Form Poetry".
Thank you for the best wishes also. Love and God bless you, Joyce
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Damn! This poem hurts; it made me want to cry. Doing it in a sonnet made it even more powerful. Well done, you really got your point accross.
Love,
Amera♥
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Amera, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise that you always give to me. Usually I think of love poems with sonnets and you said it when you said it makes them more powerful. I think that is why I chose to go with that form. I was crying while writing this. I got an invite from the host and when I opened that link I had to speak out. I should say, the little bird had to speak out. I'm very happy that this one spoke to you. My emotions are all over the place here today with the different poems that I've looked at. I might have to go browsing shortly and let the muse fly. Love you my friend, Joyce
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This is a very hardhitting and sombre poem. Very well written. Our seas really need to be kept so much cleaner...a brilliant picture to enforce the strength in your words. Wonderful.
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Kiran, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise as always. This hit me like a brick to my chest as my heart was torn into a million pieces when I saw the picture. The contest speaks for itself and when I received the invite I knew I had to write for it. It had tears flowing from me as I wrote it. I love your new picture there and congratulations again. Many happy years are wished for you. Love and God bless you my friend, Joyce
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this made me want to try harder to keep our earth clean and brought tears to my eyes. Also quite well written.
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cm, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise. It's so good to see you active again and I will be sure to keep checking for new writes from you. This contest had me in tears writing for it. The host sent me an invite for it and when I opened the link to see that poor little bird covered in oil my heart just broke into a million pieces. I'm very happy that this spoke to you. Love and God bless you always my friend, in all ways. Joyce
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First of all congratulations on your form
Well done and thanks for putting up the information on it always helps those of us who well you know don't really do form
You have given this cause a voice, we have a mess here now in Mass the Coast Guards are watching, sigh.. You think with time we would have perfected away of this not happening or have we and they just continue not to implement them sigh. Once again great voice you have given this.
Love and Light
Frozentearz -
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Tearz, Thank you for your lovely words of praise that you always leave for me. I still remember going to Nausset Beach to see the wreck of The Eldia which ran aground down there. Luckily we didn't run into the same problem as these other ships have. It was good to take the voice of the bird here as asked and the picture she used broke my heart into a million pieces. I was in tears when I wrote it. I'm very happy that it spoke to you. Love and God bless you my friend, Joyce
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I really like the message behind this. It's powerful! I'll have to look into this sonnet thing. Never heard of it.
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Willie, Thank you for the applauses and your lovely words of praise. I received an invite to this contest and the picture just tore my heart to pieces. I instantly got reminded of the Exxon Valdez and I knew I had to write for it. I had tears in my eyes writing every time I would think of the wildlife that gets destroyed by these accidents of man. I'm very happy that this spoke to you and the instructions for the sonnet can be found at shadowpoetry.com along with many other wonderful forms. Love and God bless, Joyce
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