The Flight Of The Albatross

This is my take of the famous "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge...one of my favorite poems ever.

Once I saw a great bird, majestic was he

With great white wings and proud bend of head

His dark eyes as dangerous as can be

Soared into the secluded sunset bleeding red.

 

And I, the silent spectator, awestruck by his splendor

Followed the great bird through his flight

Through forest and vale I trudged with vigor

Faster, faster, not to let him out of sight.

 

And the bird, he was an albatross, I realized

Once the beacon of hope to the Ancient Mariner

But in the end the bird had been immortalized

In the cold hands of Death, the ultimate harbinger

 

And then I wondered, could this be a reincarnation

Of mystic events transpired on the Mariner’s deck?

And would I become the Mariner of tragic reputation

To have the regal albatross hung around my neck?

 

I picture the great bird as a search for erudition

Undying, unquenchable, escalating with each breath

And his flight represents the fuel that is passion

Burning, raging, keeping him gong unto death.

 

The great bird and I fall into a rhythm, a beat

The both of us hunters, Amazons-we are ruthless

Hearts beating as one, eyes showing no sign of retreat

We let out a cry of glory, surprisingly seamless.

 

But hurry, hurry the albatross is escaping my vision

Flying higher and higher up, evading gravity

He and I together are nearing a vast horizon

But only he knows the extent of its depravity.

 

And then the horror! The great bird plummets

For all his might, he has not evaded capture

All strength leaves his being, he is only a puppet

He is confined now, once the world was his pasture.

 

Oh how the august bird fall! Stately is his bearing

Finally we see eye to eye, we are both defeated

I see myself in his eyes, a creature who is daring

But with no power to break walls the world created.

 

Now I lie with the albatross on the forest floor

I am the Mariner; my worst fear now haunts me

Of what use is all my skill and all my valor

If my spirit is forever kept under lock and key?