“I’m all alone in a rowboat, middle
Of ocean wide — and you’re not there!” you cried.
(Thus my wife grieved like lost child.) Life’s riddle
Old and fears unknown with our hopes collide,
As ship with iceberg — and indeed alone
We’re left, in the perfect storm’s raging sea.
Thus has it always been (this we bemoan).
Yet if you’re in that rowboat, I must be,
Not Coast Guard vessel come to save the day,
Nor knight in shining speedboat, but instead
A simple sailor likewise blown astray,
Joining you on journey to far beachhead…
And I can offer this: I’ll help you row.
Let’s together pull — and our fears forgo.
© Bruce William Deckert 2015
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NOTES — POETRY 411
A number of years ago, my wife used the beautiful and painful metaphor in the first two lines — essentially word for word — to tell me how she felt vis-à-vis our marriage.
This struck me as a powerful image and got me thinking about our marriage, naturally, along with the human condition, and those musings became this poem.
For my money, the sonnet is the best poem structure for the fast-moving 21st century. No lengthy free verse here — instead, 14 economical lines.
This is another Shakespearean (or English) sonnet — a 14-line poem comprised of three four-line stanzas plus a closing couplet.
A Slow Life in the FAST Lane focuses on sports-and-faith issues, so each sonnet I’m posting on this blog has at least an oblique sports connection. This one? Crew, of course!
P.S. Here’s an alternate closing couplet:
I can’t offer much, but I’ll help you row.
Shall we now, lest our mission we forgo?
In this poll, you can vote for the one you prefer:
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