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.

[deeps]

This is a wonderful write here Tate.
I like this one alot.

[Prateeksha Khot]

this is one of my favorites from your writes. i really really liked this one a lot

[Antonio Valentino]

Thanks for the voyage friend. It was loaded with barrels of exotic tradeoffs and burlap sacks of high im port ance.

Keep en coming Tate, your travels have surely broadened your horizon of tales.
Godspeed, Antonio

[Sunflower/Sara Kendrick]

Great write that you have penned in this one...It is good that you have a love for your family and close love ones that is so great for that seems to be a thing of the past with so many youth these days...Their peer group is more important than those that love them most..Keep your creative pen flowing...Sunflower

[Fallacy Pharmacy]

Very beautifully written poem like always, the flow is immense and the rhyming is just brilliant. A very touching poem, great imagery created. Very well done once again!

[Truly Ross-Wisehart]

I really liked this, Tate. Such a rough path, the life of a seaman. My family comes from a place where this is one of the most prevalent courses to follow. Also, adding Danny Boy just hit it home (being from a huge Scotch-Irish family). Beautiful images ran through my mind as I read this. Well done.

~True

[Ruth]

Touching, beautiifully written Tate:) xx

[Alicante lullaby]

you write with a rare brooding quality that makes the reader experience ifs and buts,lows and highs of life...life is the biggest teacher,it has taught you much.

[Bear]

WOW!! What a write and what an Author's Note!! "and who have dared to love me".... I too, am grateful to the souls that have loved this old fool. ;~)

[Coyote Poetry]

Poem is outstanding. I love the ocean. I was lucky. My last months in the Army. I did a 15 days cross the ocean on a large freighter for my unit. I would sit for hours and be amazed at the strength and beauty of the ocean. Poem is powerful. If I lived in the days of the large ships. I would of loved to wander the world. A outstanding poem.
Coyote