This is a poem for troubled times, an allegory of sorts, short, and I wish helpful and hopeful. Be strengthened in your sailing.
VESSELS IN THE TEAR
how does one
sail when
the keel hangs
cracked and the sails flap
all frayed
and the bailing bucket falls overboard, when
the wind
twists hysterically liked an eel
on a hook? perhaps
then it is
best to release
the rudder
and loosen the jib and main and knot
oneself to the mast, to follow
frightening lists and unknown
currents, reconciled
to ride the writhe
Image by Noupload from Pixabay
Roger Baker is the author of Rabbit Lane: Memoir of a Country Road. The book tells the true life story of an obscure farm road and its power to transform the human heart. The book is available in print and for Kindle at Amazon. See Rabbit Lane reviewed in Words and Pictures.
Rabbit Lane 
I LOVE this! I love the sailer’s language that I don’t understand and to tie oneself to the mast and just “hang on” was a very visual survival technique.
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Wonderful words, Roger. I feel like I’m on that vessel!
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I think we all are, Pat. That is the nature of this life. Hang on tight!
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The poem paints a very frightful picture. A roaring ocean, lightening that is terrifying and deafening. A ship broken and now adrift with no mast, rudderless or sails. How does one sail in such waters? Where does one…”turn for peace”…?
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One lets go and trusts.
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