Dinggedicht, Free Verse, Poetry, Theme Prompt, Writing Challenge, Writing Prompts

The Sea

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for David’s Wea’ve Written Weekly.
Hope is our PoW this week; her prompt is
to write a 10-20 line Dinggedicht poem.
Here’s where the prompt took me.

Image by Me & Gemini

It does not remember the shore it erases.
It carries no grief for the drowned.
It moves as a thing that has always been moving,
grey under clouds, green under the sun,
indifferent to both.

At its surface, light is broken and scattered ….
the evidence of depth is the darkness beneath.
It breathes without lungs, swells without effort,
opens without invitation.

What falls into it is altered.
What crosses it is altered.
What watches it too long is altered.

It does not offer this.
It simply continues, turning the same water
over and over, older than we could ever imagine.

NAR©2026
#W3

Nancy’s Notes: A Dinggedicht (German for “thing poem”) is a poetic form, popularized in the early 20th century, that focuses on a detailed, objective description of an animate or inanimate object. It attempts to let the object speak for itself through a detached, third-person perspective, moving away from subjective emotions to find the essential nature of the “thing”.

This is “Echoes” by Pink Floyd

W3 Prompt #211: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, except where otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

37 thoughts on “The Sea”

  2. Love your astute observations on the ocean, almost as indifferently done as the ocean you described… I especially love these lines: “What falls into it is altered.What crosses it is altered.What watches it too long is altered.”Thank you for sharing 🙂

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    1. After a lifetime living on or near the water, I feel like I know it pretty well, but that’s really just a delusion because no one knows the water and if we think we do, we are courting danger. My husband, the fisherman, taught me long ago to respect the ocean because she’s a fickle mistress who will change on a dime. Thank you, Hope, for this wonderful comment. It is much appreciated. 😌

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    1. Very nicely put, Val. I was taught at an early age to respect the sea and take nothing for granted. It can be calm and gentle one minute and a tsunami the next. Thanks so much for reading and leaving a comment. 😌

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