Ship to Shore

When you pulled at the wheel with me

To steer our fragile ship of state

We nosed toward uncharted seas

But found our course within a lake.

 

And every where that we did turn

There loomed another barren shore,

We turned, and then did turn about

To find we'd sailed each course before.

 

And you would chafe at each restraint

And I would rush to catch each squall

That filled our sails a little while

Before we lay becalmed once more.

 

Then you would see each distant point

As bearings, where your freedom lay

And drive our ship before the storm

For day upon each battered day.

 

'Til we had sailed on every course

That wit or will could still devise

While biting tongue and sharp retort

Became the language of our lives.

 

At every turn, a shallow reef

To wreck the hopes that we had shared,

Each tack would bring us near to grief

Each luff would leave us near despair.

 

But then you spied some promised ground

And took the boat on that same shore

That we had left together, once

Though never to return, we swore.

 

The ship of state rolled drunkenly,

I could not steer, nor go ashore

And so each watched the other weep

For you would cry, and I implore.

 

'Til you rowed back to join the ship

But we were fast upon some reef,

And soon you turned to carp and wit

To speed you on your long retreat.

 

A thousand times you made that trip,

A thousand times from ship to shore

But now the tide's exposed the rip,

There's nothing left to journey for.

 

And you may live your life ashore

While I attend some new design,

Our ship of state once went to war -

I burned her to the waterline.

 

David Lewis Paget

 

Reviews

[Michael X]

David, this is a good poem, more so the metaphor of a relationship draws to my attention regarding the meaning, reading does create a strong impression of trying
to balance between oppositions, the oepening stanza in ways puts one at the helm,
stearing toward uncertain destinies, yet confident in the fact that it will turn
in the direction favored by design, also, the specifics are left open to personal
interpretation of the vision itself, the voyage, every turn a shallow reaf,
such terms speaks valumes for them self, Nice rhyme scheme as well.
Take Care, Mike

Favorite stanza:
At every turn, a shallow reef
To wreck the hopes that we had shared,
Each tack would bring us near to grief
Each luff would leave us near despair.