a letter

 

~

 

dearest

 

what we have are words

the touch of a word

how can it compare with anything else

 

~

 

from a distance!

 

~

 

away, as you were

i thought 

of tall ships with billowy sails

crossing the oceans

carrying the written word

from one to another

 

~

 

once upon a time

lovers waited 

what must have felt like a lifetime

to read a word

then read and read and read again

 

a misinterpreted word

could mean untold angst

and a simple phrase—'my love'

could last through the next voyage

the six months

it must have taken to write back—'yes, my love'

 

~

 

pray for a following breeze

watch the tell-tale yarn on the stay

keep the helm before the wind

 

pray penelope

never finishes her weaving

and odysseus 

never loses sight of his goal

 

the captain on the quarterdeck 

scans the horizon

for what may be unchartered, reefs and wrecks

 

the likes of me

scan the horizon for port and thee

though i do my job

do as i'm told—reef and furl, push the holystone

 

~

 

should this ship

find a reef

to become another splintered wreck

and these words lost

 

your heart will know

even without the words, and be content 

 

~

 

yours, and yours alone

 

 

 

 

 

 





Poetry by one trick pony The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 796 times
Written on 2015-11-21 at 16:47

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Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
Probably one of your best. Penelope was so patient. I think it was 20 years that she waited. And even not so long ago, maybe a hundred years, lives were in limbo waiting for letters. Words that may be misinterpreted or lost. Even on the battlefield there are no longer any dear John letters. I love the way you marry The Odyssey with your life. It must be an epic.
2015-11-23


countryfog
Something I've often thought about, though it makes me feel like an old curmudgeon - the lost art of letter writing, of actually holding someone's words in your hand after the long anticipation of them, as you have so well described. Now it's instantaneous snippets of words and emoticons. Where and how you then take that thought and give it a reality that seems now almost mythical is something only a very good writer could conceive and then do.
2015-11-22


Kathy Lockhart
A beautiful tale scenic and romantic and bold while quietly tender. Amazing haunting imagery with all five senses alive and flowing with desire. The sea air is good for my asthma. I'll wait near the harbor and write my love a letter, hoping soon to see the sails of the next ship bringing me his reply. :)
2015-11-22


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
This is cinematic. We start with you thinking about how long it took to correspond with another 150 or so years ago. The scene dissolves, and suddenly we're on the ship carrying the letter with the one who wrote it. Nice.
2015-11-21