Love Tides Poem by Jim Harmon

As the wind drives my boat into a heading sea
She drives my reason far from me.
Cast upon the torrents waves
A broached I flounder in the trough
Lashed to a deck I do not command
Far off from the sure foot of land.

The airs alive with lightnings flash.
My senses reel from her perfumes lash.
Deep fingers of water reaching out
Dare me come within her grasp.
I follow her with wild abandon
Flaunting the danger at the jagged lands end .

I know the danger that awaits me there
Yet I follow her with reckless care.
Dead on to a crashing course she pulls my ship
And though I've ridden her time before
Tonight she has a different roar.
Stern to bow, bow to stern
She has me now in her whirlpools turn.

I want her warmth to close around me
To have, caress and hold me.
Yet tenderly she casts me up still afloat
Leaving me tired, bewildered and remote.
A quiet anchorage of placid bliss.
How could a sailor give up all of this?