Voyages

My life has been a voyage from start to finish.

 

 

 

My life on the outward journey

so far off I had not a clue

Leagues and leagues yet to go

passed the rum with the rest of the crew

 

For many a year the winds blew favor

upon my life’s journey and quest

Stopped at many a port in the storm

but for few, have forgotten the rest

 

Many the souls with which I started

at a score plus maybe three years

Have fallen prey to life's rough way

washed to sea along with their tears

 

Wind swept decks of my old ship

where I've lived, loved and wept

Well-worn friends who shared my fate

rode the seas on which we slept

 

It came one night there were fewer days

ahead than there had been behind

Found myself gazing to morning light

toward homes loving ties that bind

 

But the sea between here and there

be rough like the tempest shrew

Fighting the wind to sail the waves

tossed and thrown in the churning brew

 

Keeping the bow pointed for home

with the wind or against as we tack

Push for port through the fading light

look ahead and never look back

 

I turn for port thinking of you

as voyages end where they start

Time this sailor found his way home

to touch the warmth of hearth and heart

  $12.50

Author's Note

I pray all I am, all I may ever be, can be found in the hearts of those I have loved.
And who have dared to love me. As in the times of the ancient mariner we all hear the call of sirens that gesture us to sail home. Continuity of purpose flows from the wellspring of our lives. In the end we all find we are drawn inexorably home, to the hearth from around which we told our tales of long ago and spun our yarns of a life well lived. The well spent life will always beckon from the winds of change a call for home.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

What a wonderful poem, beautiful words but so much more buried beneath them. There really is something in comparing life with sailing the high seas, weathering storms, lying in the doldrums and all that .. and of course, the proximity of people you live and love amongst ..

'Keeping the bow pointed for home with the wind or against as we tack ~ Push for port through the fading light looking ahead and never look back'

Think this is one of your best .. love it.

[Scarlet Pulse]

One of my own as if to say
I belong on your distant shore
I dream to dock to disembark
I turn for home thinking of you
my voyages end where they start
Time this sailor found his way home
to touch your loving hearth and heart
in the beloved arms I adore
BEAUTIFUL, no others words!!!

[Siddartha Beth Pierce]

Beautiful sentiments in your Author's note, I pray the same, Tate. I wonder if in the third stanza you mean to use the word 'prey' instead of 'pray' - not sure? In any case, an amazing voyage of courageous hope. Uplifting in the end. Thanks for sharing.
Light,
Siddartha

[zombiikillah666]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....this should be a movie...
love it... *sips some rum* (:

[Ishgnu]

Speechless again. Perfect analogy of life and hope.

[SM Davis]

One of my own as if to say
I belong on your distant shore
I dream to dock to disembark
in the beloved arms I adore

Loved this one. My son is in the US Navy on a carrier. This really is touching.

[A.r. Bazian]

this may cometh nearest to mine heart
for as comic as sounds the wind
this is the story of an end without a start

a paling slate of white sheet
slowly, forth rowing into oblivion
the fair scatters of common sweet
away from the weary balance of creation

by and by, these hardened sorrows bellow shattered orchids of dry vine
the alphabets of beauty slowly drowning in these precious letters of wine

and as they wash away; forgotten... belay the inevitable
barren of hope, and my ways rotten...
bereave empty dresses of night!

(this was inspired by you) thank you!

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

Sometimes sailing against the wind.. yet in the end making way home.
Love the last lines.. home and hearth.
Good poem Tate.

Chloe

[Poeticpiers]

A safe haven awaits the sailor home from the sea.Although it may take years to find her
I am at anchor permanently