Sunday, April 11, 2010

Looking Out From the Bell Tower at Ghirardelli Square

Through morning fog
White sails of a lone boat
Play peek-a-boo
San Francisco Harbor

Assignment: Write a poem to reflect some elements of sound...rhyme, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.

The harbor shimmers,
Painted with impressionist brush.
White sails of a solitary boat
Play me a game of hide and seek
Through a fog that half-hides, too
Alcatraz and its lighthouse from view.

Alcatraz in its day
Had another name -- The Rock.
No man ever escaped, they say.
Although thirty-six tried and died,
Drowned in the shark-infested
Currents of the bay.

To my right I see,
In the waters of the sea,
A three-masted sailing ship of old
Moored within the confines
Of old Hyde Street Pier.
A tangle of other vessels, too, are there.

Standing in the Tower room
Now at noon precisely timed,
I hear a whir r and look up to see
Fourteen heavy, cast bronze bells,
Their fourteen heavy hammers primed
To clang the midday knell.

Covering my ears to muffle the deafening din,
I am done with gazing over sea and scape,
And vow to leave to another day
Further sights of The City by the Bay
That grew from shantytown of tents
To the bustling beauty it is today.