Retired sailor's lament (echo verse)

What can't be found while there's wind in the trees? (Ease)

A note on echo poems

The echo poem was a form popular in the 16th-17th centuries. It comprises a series of statements of questions followed by a response (or echo) which repeats part of the end of the question:

Then tell me, what is that supreme delight?

Echo: Light

From George Herbert (1593-1633), Heaven

Another example is Edward de Vere's echo verses (1588).

Given the limited options, it is usual to allow some laxity about the precision of the echo.

There is a modern ribald echo poem about poets of the past by Kinglsey Amis, included in his published Letters (p. 115):

Say what the realm of honey-tongued Pope is. Echo: Piss

What ails Wordsworth in Nature's mystic lap? Echo: Clap

Regret (echo poem)

What does the heart do when it's made a mistake? (Ache)
What is the fruit of being untrue? (Rue)

Broken (echo poem)

Who walked away in the dawn, scattering the dew? (You)
Who remained there under a paling sky? (I)

Will you return when the wind brings the snow? (No)
What do they do who say feelings fly? (Lie)

Where must you travel when all hope is gone? (On)
What becomes of the bond that linked friends? (Ends)

Powerless (echo poem)

Whose fate is ruled by far-distant towers? (Ours)
And who will obey Death's final call? (All)

Terminal

The line stops here

Beneath arching glass

Locomotives shudder

Panting for breath

Carriages cough passengers

Onto the platform

Midnight arrives

Silence descends

Pigeons fight for litter

With the rats

Diminuendo

The Greeks heard it

Long ago

Before there was anything else

To hear

They stared up at the night sky

Amazed

Tracked the stars and planets

By eye

The harmonics of geometry

Dancing

The music of the spheres

Fading

This is part of the 7th Poetry Carnival.