Poetry

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Sailor
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My first voyage to Sea
Proved quite an adventure for me
I was but a young fool
Thinking mighty Sea a mere tool

A path to distant lands
Control of the Sea in our hands
This I thought not for long
For I soon learned I was very wrong

That cold night years ago
Our loved Ship sailed to and fro
Across a foreign Sea
We had not the forethought to flee

I walked the Ship’s deck
The taunt ropes and sails I did check
That night was black and stormy
Yet the wild wind seemed to bore me

If only I had known
Into what state I would be thrown
I’d certainly not have been
So swaggeringly confident right then


Few stars out that night
Even when I peered with all my might
Barely could I see waves
I heard dashing Ship’s side in raves

Nine Bells were soon struck
That was when things went amuck
Sea wind made the sails flop
And pelted my face with salty drop

The crash of the waves
Left me in a terrifying daze
And the groan of our Ship
Told me it was beginning to tip

The call: “All hands on deck!”
Could not prevent our dreadful wreck
But a fool I still was
Not believing I could die as one does

As we tossed in the Sea
I spied a sailor in front of me
Who upon bended knee
Called out to God a dying plea




I sneered at sailor man
And to his side I spitefully ran
I laughed loud in his face
As he stared up to Heaven for Grace

“You old fool!” I cried
For I thought we could not have died
I jerked him to his feet
But his frank eyes I could not meet

Then the deck did fall
Onto one side to drop us all
I tumbled with the rest
And flew from Ship into wave’s crest

Shouts I heard all around
As friends and sailors there did drown
Darkness, blackness of night
Hid from me the horror of sight

Water poured over my head
I sank almost to Sea bottom’s bed
Then some sudden Ocean surge
Brought me back up with desperate urge



I gasped for fresh air
In my ears roaring noise did blare
Of the Sea and the storm
And my lot I then did mourn

Again and again
I was plunged under water then
Till horribly weak was I
Finally knowing I could indeed die

As I surfaced last time
I weakly murmured this line:
“God, I see I was wrong;
Please save me for I won’t last long.”

Then of a sudden I saw
Though it fits with no physical law
The sight of blessed land
A sight to me splendidly grand

Not one last bit of strength
I possessed to swim that last length
But a merciful wave
Carried me to the beach as its slave




Once upon dry soil
I knew that with all my toil
Never could I have reached
The solid ground where I now beached

Had I not prayed that night
I’d have died though I gave a good fight
And I now humbly saw
My Godless ideas were much a flaw

Then and there that cold night
With only few stars as my light
I bent my trembling knee
To the coarse, wet sand at my feet

And whispered a prayer
Of thanks to my Savior fair
My heart all contrite
Gone was every bit of my spite

I would recall the sailor
Only a few short minutes later
Whom I had called a fool
But whom God had used as His tool




Saved alone from my plight
I stood and looked out at the sight
Of sad empty Sea
Where without Grace I would be

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