Evermore anchored in wicked swells
Barnacled chain pulls in vain to break
I heave to and fro in cursed spells
Like a warrior against water drake
There is no freedom from silver chain
Yet I hear sound of footfall on wood
With a mighty shove and grunt of pain
My anchor lifts and we move for goods
How’d we get here amidst such spindrift?
Alone in vast stretches of deep brine
Partnered with hands to keep me adrift
The salt and the blue sea are all mine
Crashing caps against my creaking hull
Is not enough to overwhelm me
My captain owns the sea more than the gull
His will is strong and his spirit free
Neither am I swift nor my sail light
Yet I am set free by my firm guide
In him I find my lasting delight
As long as in him do I abide
The waves they may frighten and alarm
But my course is set across the seas
Shipwrecks, disaster, unease and harm
Incite no more terror from these trees
Bowsprit pointed where water meets sky
I tack with leisure, merry making
With all rigging tight and spirits high
The ocean is ours for the taking
A tremor travels from bow to aft
In my hull I hear a booming crack
My wooden body splintered with shaft
Begins to sink—too far to turn back
Sly rock below takes me to my tomb
Licking its lips with its wicked quip
Swallows me to my coral-bound doom
My captain now goes down with his ship
He leaves me not in my splintered death
We float to shore, him on my timbers
My boards collect onto shoreline’s breadth
He picks me up with careful fingers
With hammer and nail, time and passion
I am reborn, creation remade
To set sail once again refashioned
Granted life to voyage unafraid
He heaves up my halyard, grasps my helm
With horizon as our merry friend
Navigating under starry realm
Into lands I cannot comprehend