There is no hope -

I am an empty vessel,

My sails are torn and tattered,

My oars have been lost in the water,

Far behind.

The wood is cracked all about me,

And slowly the water is filling in;

I am sinking,

Deeper, deeper

Into a sea of despair.

Battered by defeat,

I see no reason to stay afloat.

I have seen the calm beneath,

Where things float by

Peacefully,

And the storm cannot reach me;

Where the sun is a phantom light.

So quiet down there;

Why not go?

For there, time forgets me,

And the unseen things of this world

Will build upon me

A monument of a former time now forgotten.

What am I but a ship,

Alone,

Floating without direction,

Just one of many in an endless sea,

Doomed to sink like many others.

Why should I hope

To come to the land I seek

When there is no wind,

And my entirety is falling apart?

But I cannot forget the crafter

Who built the vessel,

With care for every detail.

Who set me upon the water,

When I left his dock.

I cannot remember the parting words,

For I was asleep when I left;

And I awoke on the sea

Far away.

I had only the birds to guide me,

And only the rare islands of happiness.

In a sea of sorrow,

Brought me sustenance,

That I might go on,

To where I am led.

Yet with each day,

I see the sun over the water,

And far off,

I know there is land.

Not just an island with limits,

sustaining only for a time,

But a place sustaining endlessly,

In ways which I can only dream of.

In the darkness,

When the water pours in,

I think to sink myself

In the dolorous depths;

But then morning comes,

And I cannot believe how foolish I was:

For the sunrise

Is so beautiful,

That hope returns from its hibernation,

And walks inside me again.

How strange indeed,

That at times the dark can be so thick,

So great,

That the sun is forgotten.

I must remember,

That a storm has but a season,

Whilst the sun ever burns;

My spirit never sleeps,

Even when the soul weeps.


Poem © Graeme Brown, 2005 (all rights reserved)

Graeme's first book Becoming is published by RoseDogBooks.