Sometimes it takes another person to tell you that a poem is good. I wrote this poem in 2003 tending a roadside booth in Laytonville, CA. Once I had written it I thought it was too dark and decided to hide it away. My then wife, Tabitha, made me recite it to her and then insisted that I put it in my performances. She was right, of course.
This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose
Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78
Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill
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The Woman and the Sea
“I had a boy and lost him”
The woman to me said
“Upon the Sea I lost him
I fear that he is dead”
“Born of love long years ago
When I was seventeen
His father was a fisherman,
In those days I wore green”
The black dress and brown shawl she wore
Were clean, but worn and old
Her hair was dark, but graying
Her brown eyes flecked with gold
“I loved that man most fiercely
He worked hard to keep us fed
And when the Sea would try men’s souls
He always kept his head”
“But when my man was thirty-one
The ocean claimed her own
His boat was lost and all aboard
Went off to Davy Jones”
“My boy was then a strapping lad
Of nine or maybe ten
He worked at mending nets and such
Fish cleaning now and then”
“He grew strong and he grew tall
And always loved the Sea
But stayed ashore to ease my fears
He always honored me”
“But then he met a lassie
With eyes of sea-foam green
Her kisses like a rolling tide
Her hair a wavy dream”
“Her father said there’d be no match
If he’d not test the Sea
And so he took to fishing
And left my fears to me”
“They say the cycle turns and turns
And I suppose that’s true
My grandson was but twelve years old
When first the news I knew”
“The boat was lost without a trace
Now six long years ago
I had a boy and lost him
To the Ocean’s cruel flow”
She bowed her head to check a stitch
And turned to watch the sea
Where now her grandson plied the waves
And the wind blew wild and free
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