I Sailed A Ship – a poem

I wrote this poem a few weeks ago, suffering the usual inspiration of hearing something and getting it caught in my brain until I wrote a piece to exorcise it. Seems fitting for the season though.

I Sailed A Ship

I sailed a ship so grand and gray. 

  A ship so wide and tall. 

I sailed that ship through every port

  From winter through to fall. 

I sailed a ship so far, so far, from sea to shimmer’d sea. 

I sailed that ship From north to south but never was I free.  

I sailed a ship  my lad, my lad, 

  I sailed that ship so long  and you never knew a dad. 

my son your mother came to tears. 

The sea she was my true and dear 

  wife upon my mind. 

Your mother fine though she was to me, 

  gained little of my time. 

Your mother’s tears could never free me of that awful ship. 

She hanged herself oh from the prow and forever will she drip. 

I sailed a ship so dark and deep into the heart of night. 

I sailed my ship so true and clear and gave my crew a fright. 

We sailed unto the empty wastes that lay beyond the world. 

We sailed into the starry vasts where gods of old do twirl. 

I sailed the men into the sea to visit friends of old. 

I took men into the deeps and left them there to mold. 

My men, those men, so brave and true, oh never did they know,

  Their souls I’d sold so long ago, to things which horror grows. 

Monsters deep and gods so dark, to look you never can, 

  The things that rule from under sea and feast upon God’s Man. 

I sailed a ship so black and proud, I sailed into the sun. 

I sail back down from moon each night, my sailing work not done. 

I sail a ship from coast to coast, til time it is no more. 

I sail my ship O filled with dead, the damned and sainted whore. 

I sail my ship straight into doom ‘cause that’s where treasures lay. 

I love you son, my beauty boy, but never can I stay. 

I left your maw and you, my child

To wander world a’wild. 

I left you boy, I left your maw, 

  To sail with things that gnaw. 

The sea she is my true and dear. 

The sea she is my life. 

I sold my soul so long ago, the sea now is my wife. 

To sail until the end of time, to sail even well past. 

To sail until my body dead, it hangs tied to the mast. 

To sail until the end of all and blackness captures light, 

when seas of stars shall take me away  and into the endless night. 

I sail a ship my son, my boy. 

I sail it proud and true. 

I sail this ship oh lad of mine so you won’t sail it too. 

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