Whaler’s Widow’s Lament Poem by Robert Sheridan

The sea is now cold dear Samuel
As images of you are meted out like waves
No one sees the pattern that it’s making -
Like graves cast upon immortality’s slaves;
Beyond this whaling island bound
Exiled by family and friends
I have been kept too long in distress
Now calling for you, my tears silenced in the wind;
The winter sea with its hollow rind
Put you into circumscription, to you it did confine
Far below the waves that crash
Now you linger in its chambers, lost in its icy grip;
I walk along the sea ~ coast
Across its salty trail
Slowly, as I cast withered flowers gently
My love for you ever on my mind;
A thanksgiving – the mother of your son and daughter
No sorrow – your end taken by the whaling-life
So fragile, like an agate
The human heart, emotions, chiseled by God in heaven;
My longing for you may bury me
The constant weeping - my cross to bear
I chose the mourning widow’s path
It is infinite and eternal – stamped like old age;
Somehow though, I will live on
To stand alone with faculties capable
A young widow bowed in controllable grief
I, Maggie, your wife, will always love you.

'2007'