When once I sailed a maiden course,
Timber-rot ‘neath plucky hull
Sparring Neptune’s spuming horse
Swollen squawks the baying gull.
...
And there she lies under the woemonger’s needle.
I see the hole in you, the lover’s kiss
...
There’s a clamour at the club, feral fervour
And the Dancer de-briefs, de-clothes, de-dames
...
By chance one morn I wandered south, gently lulled by gusty thanes
and sipped from yesterday’s brimful cup, lusty and dripping on today’s;
...
Come night I heard a Siren's call,
Burrowed 'neath a searing gale
Cross wind-whipped crag and bleakest grass-
Through hedgerows would it sail
...
There is a place, a plain where oft
I’ll linger. And the darkness here breathes so loud,
It melts the stars themselves, who slide
Down the indigo canvas.
...
Maiden Course
When once I sailed a maiden course,
Timber-rot ‘neath plucky hull
Sparring Neptune’s spuming horse
Swollen squawks the baying gull.
Mired in filth and fear and dark
I, a vessel fit to burst,
Brim-full, breaching, rent asunder
Aside she washed, ashore, the first.
Come fortune! Claim the blustered tarp!
And blow it softly, path anew
Twixt the currents, chasms dark
‘Cross rolling swelling, blotted blue.
And thus when I laid eye on thee
Respite offered on thy sand
Battened hatch to briny deep
And wading buoyant onto land
If the eye should be a porthole
Through which my soul you can perceive
Then surely you have pierced my pupil
And sunk the dread inside of me.
I pray that love’s own sake be false
For truer ne’er has been my vow
Knotted tender, breathe thy pulse
And linger lips upon thy brow.