Sea Poets

Pablo Neruda

I discovered the sea. From Carahue
the river Cautin flowed to its estuary
and, in the paddleboats,
dreams and another life began to possess me,
leaving questions in my eyelashes.

(from El primer mar…. The first sea)

I need the sea because it teaches me.
I don’t know if I learn music or awareness,
if it’s single waves or its vast existence,
or only its harsh voice or its shining one,
a suggestion of fishes and ships.
The fact is that until I fall asleep,
in some magnetic way I move in
the university of the waves.

(from El Mar…The Sea)

--

Horace

Fare forward, good ship, and, I pray
May Venus, Queen of Cyprus, may
Helen’s bright brothers, masthead stars,
And may (all winds kept behind bars
But the north-west) the god of gales
Aeolus so direct your sails
That you who voyage promise-bound
To keep your cargo safe and sound
Deliver to his Attic goal
Virgil, and with him half my soul.

(from Odes One)

--


John Mansfield

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s
Shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

(from SEA-FEVER)

--

Rhian Gallagher

Unshowered, wrestling with the sea still on our skin
When she catches me, mid-room, with a kiss.
Not a passing glance of lips, but her intended
Till I press back against the wall
Laughing, in a body-search pose
As ready as her to forget about dinner.

(from Embrace)