Titanic { Part 3 Of 3 } (On The Other Side, Waiting) Poem by Frank James Ryan Jr...fjr

__________ PROLOGUE____________

When the sun rose over New York Harbour,
on the morning of April 16th,1912....officials
were still laboring over obtaining a final true
count of the dead... Back in 1912, statisticals
of such event's as 'natural disasters, 'or any
cataclysmic event..... were generally gauged
on what was called Gnomanic Projection, an
visionary scientific theory discovered by an
English Mathematician William Oughtred in
circa 1600, to gauge time, sequence & other
statistical facts. Therefore, Titanic's' absolute
final 'death toll' continues to be a Historians'
debate that will probably never achieve a full
closure.... The Gnome Projection concept has
recorded Titanic's final death 'toll' at 1500....

Unlike my 2 earlier works.....dedicated to the
100th Anniversary of the Titanic tragedy but at were not directly 'themed' on the event
the below work of alternating Tercet/Couplet
Stanzaic Structure 'IS' directly based on that
night of April 15th,1912, and as opposed to al-
most all of the accounts I've seen or read over
the past week's leading up to the 100th anniv-
ersary of Titanic, I chose to write this final in-
stallment by focusing on the sheer angst and
horror the loved one's of Titanic's passenger's
must have suffered... as they waited helplessly
at New York Harbor for word, any word about
their loved ones and for what would inevitably
become the Cross they would all share, & bear
for many, many years to come..................... FjR

_______________________________________

________ON THE OTHER SIDE, WAITING_______

They were impatiently waiting portside...by the hundreds
Discognizant to a surrealism beyond their comprehension
April nights in New York can be quite raw by the ebb-tide

Yet sage-dark clouds o'er the harbor paled by comparison
To an ice-capped graveyard housing fifteen-hundred souls

'Twas the night the great Titanic swept the oceans bottom
While friends and families of the victims....paced helplessly
Held hands and prayed as one, to whoever they called God

Some fell to their knees, with emotions naked, unashamed
Lips quavered in muted prayer, frozen by Oceans icy mist

Came the news, by telegraph....the echoed roll-call of death
Spilling out the basins jejune speakers, muffled by the cries
And wailing....how eerie in the night it must have sounded

One-hundred years hav' passed since the night Titanic died
Artists continue to get rich quick........off the death of wealth

There were people waiting on the other side.........of Titanic
Their horror and stories.....would forever walk beside them
From April fifteenth, nineteen-twelve.........'til they too pass

April nights in New York....can be quite raw by the ebb-tide
Twenty-Five Hundred miles away..........Titanic sleeps

______________________ F j R _______________________



©Frank James Ryan, Jr./FjR
MMXII- All Rights Reserved