#53: Daughter Lost at Sea

I thought this week, I could go through my thought process for how this poem was written. Most of my poems begin with a spark of inspiration. Usually a theme or a story pops in to my head and then I begin to put it down on paper. One thing I have learned is that music can help me with writing in a specific iambic form. The music acts as a counting mechanism while I'm trying to put lines together. That allows my mind to focus on the words as the music provides the flow. 

For this poem, the melody from Jeff Mangum's, "Little Birds" provides the inspiration. You can watch him perform this brilliant song here. Now the lyrics of his song are phenomenal and my poem below isn't nearly as good as what he created, but the way hes sings the song resonated in my mind and caused me to write this poem in the manner in which he sings. 

Thematically, my poem is completely different from Jeff's song, but the form in which I wrote the poem is wholly derivative of his musical creation. Of course, it is likely that the melody he created is derived from someone else's melody, but I'm no music expert, so I don't really know. The beautiful thing though, is that creative work is always derived from something else. Jeff Mangum's work provided the melodic inspiration, some random creative spark provided the theme, and then the work for me personally was putting the words together.

Little girl on a boat, she fell into the water

Lost for half an hour I hope that one of us will spot her

I do not know but I can see the distress in her father

No one loves her more because she is his only daughter

I look out to sea, but only eye the big waves cresting

My eyes have been searching but they are in need of resting

All I hear are frantic yells, of all of us distressing

I hope she is not lost for long cause that would be depressing

Nightfall is approaching fast as the waves keep on coming

Her father is determined and he’ll keep this boat on running

To find her just as the sun sets, wouldn’t that be something

But if we don’t find her soon, this night will be our haunting

A little girl lost at sea, the place of her last visit

A day trip with her loving dad the food it was exquisite

Of all the trips they had gone on, this would have been her favorite

But now this is a nightmare that her father cannot forget

As he grieves, we all can see his pain

As night falls, we come to comfort him

She is gone, in the waves of the ocean

And now he is left here, to wait for heaven… to wait for heaven