Please Look Away

From an image born

Please, oh please
do not look upon me
looking this way
please, this is not the real me
look away ...

Regal, elegant oh so
beautiful was I
a lady proud strong and steadfast

My maiden voyage that cold
Spring day
twenty-two thousand strong
I alone held these people
within my bosom

Oh the majesty
the merriment
dining and dancing
walking upon my fine decks

Adorned in jewelery
crystal chandeliers
the sea beneath me
I sailed onward in grand style

Too fast, they were pushing me too fast
he said, full steam ahead
I knew...

Too few watching something
 is going to go wrong
I cannot forsake these souls
I am bound to protect them

Too fast , too few
and ice straight ahead
cold and cruel
this giant iceberg

Had they not pushed me
so hard, fast
had they watched with a keen eye
I could have held them all safely
until I docked

The ice cut into me deep, stabbing
the sea beneath was within me
I was sinking taking so many with me
I tried, oh how I tired to stay afloat

Please understand I was a beauty
steadfast and true
held by the sacred oath of ships

Had they not pushed me
so hard, fast
had they looked with a keener eye
you would not have to see me as this
I could have grown old with dignity

Those I held who went down with me
I still hold they are my passengers
I am as a mother holding onto them

I shed many tears
many a days
for I let them down
I let them down
now together we lie
beneath what was beneath me
oh how I cry

Author's Note

thought of the ship The Titanic as a lady... and perhaps had they not pushed her so fast and watched more closely- taking for granted because she was a mighty ship nothing could go wrong
maybe she would have made it to New York....

Reviews

[Devons]

A really touching personification of this most famous ship. Told like a story through her eyes, with compassion and a sense of the tragedy lurking beneath. Since ships are referred to as "she" this enactment of her as a woman and mother creates an automatic connection between man and machine. She was indeed beautiful, but I still think she is even now - beautiful in an awesome sense. Like a ghost of semi-preserved glory and life. The poem works very well and is a fine almost mystical summary re-telling. And I really like these lines:
"now together we lie
beneath what was beneath me"
...This last line has other connotations beyond the physical. How the mighty have fallen.

[KATHY SUE SILLS]

Love this poem! The imagery is so perfect! You captured the story so well!

[Quinn Blackburn]

Wonderful voice you've given that grand and tragic lady. Amazing how this still touches people today, yet we still seem to go about things with the same blind hubris.... the Gulf oil spill springs instantly to mind, for example. Excellent wordcrafting!

[Samuel Dickens]

It's amazing how that event still captures our attention all these years later. Once when returning from deployment in the Mediteranean, they announced on the aircraft carrier's pa system that we were passing over the spot where the Titanic went down. Well, let me tell you, I felt a bit uneasy, and immediately walked out onto a sponson to look for icebergs.

[Rossen]

This is why I am your biggest fan...

[Magdelena]

Wonderful concept.. I so loved your imagery, as i read this i did see her as a woman, sailing in the darkened night and oh how beautiful she was! You made her so real that one could touch her.

Great job.

Mags xx

[Art Sun]

Very creative and an emotional view through the eyes of a ship destined into the depths of history...

nice work...

[Moises]

Wow amazing write!

[c.m.]

"Please understand I was a beauty"....as was this piece. The story of Titanic is a sad one, but one I definitely love. This is a truly unique poem, and you wrote from the ship's point of view so well....loved it

[JENY]

very nice imagery…
So deep….
Awesome….liked it…very much….

[.]

beautiful metopher..you captured a moment with such emotion, the sadness, regret and lost felt in ever line. wonderful.