I do have a boat. A poor leaky thing it is With a wonky rudder And a quivering sail. In fair weather it takes me where I want to go, But when the storm breaks I cling to the mast, rising to the crest of each new wave And plummeting to the depths To arrive in a new place with the lull.
One morning I heard a glorious song; A full throated trilling With the sweetest falling note. I searched the trees and found a robin Engulfed by the song; His whole body puffing and swelling with each note. His tiny beak seemed inadequate For such piercing purity. He was abandoned to the sound that occupied his tiny frame And seemed to come not of him, but through him. Then it ceased.
Great ships pass by With engines that cut through the waves leaving white-tipped furrows, All barren ploughing; no wind in their sails, but engines powering Relentlessly forward And back across the waves With souls oblivious to the mighty mountains and the Dreadful depths.
Cut through, forge forward to more ocean Or more of the same. Over the top go the great ships Like grand dams brushing away The hoi polloi. A flurry of exquisite cut and sparkling ore Sweeping through But surface dusting only. No highs and lows, no bobbing, No clinging to the mast No robin.