Helm Full and By

It's been a long (shamefully long) time since I have made good on my promise of Sunday poetry here on ye olde blogge. Not really sure why, but my muses have been silent until today. The refrain of this one kept bopping around in my head this morning and wouldn't leave me alone all day. I've cherished carving out a little time to write it this evening.

Ah, the title- for those of you who don't get down with the sailing lingo, is a command for when you set a new course at the wheel. Not sure where I picked that up. I sailed with my folks as a kid. I was the "winch wench" on the Holly Too. As I recall it, I coiled all the ropes neatly for everyone doing the real work. Wasn't really in charge of steering the boat. Later, I did some sailboarding and loved it... though you don't have to give a lot of commands on a sailboard. Unless you like talking to yourself.

Anyway. Thanks for reading!

Helm Full and By

I have been anchored here for so long

chained to a darkly deep underneath

a place that I have never even seen

I have been anchored here for so long

staring at these same distant horizons

tethered floating in an untraceable circle

I have been anchored here for so long

that when I  reach down to feel my keel

I discover only years and years of bilge

I have been anchored here for so long

it is time to pluck from my teeming hull

the rocky colony of clinging barnacles

I have been anchored here for so long

I must ignore the mildewed smell of

heavy cloth as I unfold it in the sunlight

It takes all my strength, my shoulders,

my legs my hands, my back, my breath

to crank the weedy chain up link by link

It takes my faith to haul on the halyard,

peer over the bow, swing the boom and

let the wild winds impregnate the sails