Ship in the Night Poem by Gerard Smyth

Falling from the ether, coming in on the tides

the Age of Aquarius arrived

with its pole star to the west

and California weather,

a time for the love-in, the street fight,

for the sorceries of the blues guitarist,

gentler strings for the broken-hearted.

The needle in the groove

scratched the tunes of a new troubadour.

In the heaven-on-earth small house

I was the boy who listened for hours

to radio broadcasts from a ship in the night.

A ship far from shore, with nowhere to go -

that hoisted a flag of convenience

above its cargo of songs in the morning,

songs in the moonlight,

the chanson of the chanteuse

who kindled desire in every man she knew -

my night-companion who sang me to sleep

with her blues that she blew

in on the tides and out of the ether.