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Open Poetry #45
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AncientHippie
Member
since 2009-10-15
Posts 411
Surfing the Cosmic Flow

0 posted 2009-10-20 08:52 AM




The once-proud schooner rots on the shore,
and hears the breakers' endless roar,
to ride the flood tides nevermore,
to fish on the Northern Banks.

The flood tides oft'  had borne her away,
to face the North Atlantic spray,
and filled her holds day after day
with cod, from the Northern Banks.

But she was Queen of the Sea in her day:
beneath her bowsprit would porpoises play,
and through winter gales, her captain would pray
to God, on the Northern Banks.

Yes, she was Queen of the Sea, in her prime,
and through her rigging seamen would climb,
and strain 'til they gave the cry sublime,
"Fish ho!" on the Northern Banks.

Then with holds full, she's homeward bound,
and through town streets laughter would sound,
and her crew would smile, for word was around,
"She's the best on the Northern Banks!"

Now the Queen lies asleep, with the beach for her bed,
and children play in the sand 'round her head,
but she doesn't mind, for her heart has led
her home, to the Northern Banks.

Sutra 5: Public self-criticism does not brighten one’s Spark of Brahman: it merely feeds one’s narcissism.
Jim's Guide to Enlightenment:  The Comple

© Copyright 2009 James D. Fanning - All Rights Reserved
Mysteria
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Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
1 posted 2009-10-20 02:35 PM


This if true, is an absolutely wonderful story.  I can't imagine how many fishermen or pirates were born playing in her fairing bones.

I have only been to the "other side" once and that was to Cape Cod, but for some reason I left my heart there, and long to go back almost once a day.  

martiniat8
Senior Member
since 2003-06-21
Posts 897
Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic
2 posted 2009-10-20 02:39 PM


LOVE this! A wonderful write, such a great story and says so much about, just everything and every one. "Fish Ho!!!!"
AncientHippie
Member
since 2009-10-15
Posts 411
Surfing the Cosmic Flow
3 posted 2009-10-21 08:36 AM


Martiniat8:  Glad you enjoyed this tale of the sea.
Mysteria:  I was born in a little fishing village, where both of my grandfathers were keepers of the oral history of our people, so such tales are part of my genetic makeup.  My poem is a distillation of some of those tales.  The schooner is based on a rotting schooner I saw on the south shore of Nova Scotia in my teenage years.  Nova Scotia is much wilder, and much less polished and populated than Cape Cod, and certainly worth a visit.

Sutra 6: If your Path seems to be sprinkled with shards of glass, you should examine each shard to ensure it is not a diamond.

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