Analysis of following fish



I said goodbye to my sanity today
I could not keep it and still love you
for following you was never a rational thing.

So I keep stowing away on ships
talking to the silent fish
and leaving a blood trail for them to follow.

To drain my heart overboard daily
I must drink the sea to replenish it,
one can get used to a mouth of salt.

And one can get used to the unbalanced
waves, the lighted and slippery prow,
laughing into a storm.

One can get used to a face of water
a diet of biscuits, shivering
with wind and sail. Insanity

is not a voyage I am scared of.
I fear instead staying on the shore
and forgetting you.


Scheme XAB XXX CXX XXX XBC XXA
Poetic Form
Metre 1111110001 111110111 1100111001001 11110111 1010101 01001111110 11111010 1110110101 111110111 0111110010 101001001 100101 1111101110 010110100 11010100 110101111 110110101 00101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 601
Words 123
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 80
Words per stanza (avg) 21

About this poem

Published in On The Platform, Waiting: a Writers Group Anthology. Smashwords. 2018

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Written on April 02, 2014

Submitted by Ariel on September 19, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
8

Ariel

Ariel is a full-time Pacific Northwest poet, often participating at Oregon Open Mics events. She has been published in Gold Man Review, AIM, The Widow’s Handbook, and most recently in Terra Incognita, On The Platform Waiting and Free From Monsters. Ariel often collaborates in many Willamette Valley poetry/art projects and is a member of Oregon Poetry Association, Mid-Valley Poets Association, Willamette Writers and Poet. Her website is poetariel.net. more…

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