Can you hear the call?

Every once in awhile I read something or hear a song that seems to reach out to me. It sticks in my mind and, at first, it won’t go away. Then I realize that it is sticking in my mind BECAUSE it’s calling me. I thought I’d share a few of those, and hope you will add some of your favorite quotes, songs or sayings. Let’s keep it clean and in the spirit in which this is posted.

First, from Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening”….
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

The next is also from a Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken”….
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.”

This next one isthe poem “Sea Fever” by John Masefield....
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the 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.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.”


This last quote is one I read today. It’s from the June 2015 issue of Power & Motoryachts. It is from the book “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck.

“Once a journey is designed, equipped and put into process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari an exploration is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has a personality, temperament, individuality, uniquesness.

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policy and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip takes us."


OK all ye old salts. Let’s hear from you about that special poem or whatever it was that called out to you. If you feel like sharing the reasons behind why your particular verse called out to you, please do.

Never cared much for poetry other than song lyrics and the songs I like have nothing to do with boating.

But every now and then a particular phrase will strike a chord and stick with me. I can only think of one right now that has anything to do with boating or the sea, and that's the phrase "the steam-valve sigh of a whale surfacing in the distance."

This is something I can relate to because one of the places we boat (and we're going for the next couple of weeks) puts us in pretty close proximity with humpback, gray, and minke whales. Halibut fishing the way we do it is a silent proposition in that we don't use a motor while we're doing it. So it's just us and the sounds around us up north. And when a whale surfaces, either close by or a mile or more away, that's exactly what it sounds like.

Your quote from Sea Fever is my #1 inspiration, followed by:

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”

― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer

It is well with my soul.

I like the old John Denver song, "High Calypso"…it always make me think of things nautical.

One of my favorites is, The Ocean's Roar I clipped it from a forum or website years ago the author was not listed, I don't know who wrote it but it is very much like the quote in Conrad's post #3

THE OCEAN'S ROAR
A small boy heard the ocean roar,
There are secrets on my distant shore,
But beware my child, the ships bell’s wail,
Wait not to long to start to sail.

So quickly come and go the years,
And a young adult stands abeach with fears,
Come on, Come on the ocean cussed,
Time passes on. Oh sail you must.

Now its business in mid-aged prime,
And maybe tomorrow there will be time,
Now is too soon, its raining today,
Gone all gone-years are eaten away.

An old man looks, still feeling the lure,
Yet he’ll suffer the pain, than go for the cure,
The hair is white, the steps with care,
The tide has turned, he is aware.

So all too soon the secrets are buried,
Along with him and all regrets he carried,
And it’s not for the loss of secrets he cried,
But rather because he’d never tried.

There is nothing absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

Wind in the Willows


Ted

Great post.
Subscribed.

We lost a very close friend last week in a very sudden and tragic way. This poem has given me some solace. Rest in peace Nikki Alex:

Gone From My Sight by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

My signature, from the song "Cool Change" by the Little River Band, Circa 1979.
See below

Thanks Guys for all your postings, and please keep 'em coming.

Loaves and Fishes, and PeterB, "Calypso" and "Cool Change" long been my favorite songs. In my junior high school years I spent probably thousands of hours sailing on Lake Huron, by myself, often from before the sun rose to well after it set. I miss those times.
"If there's one thing
In my life that's missing
It's the time that I spend alone
Sailing on the cool
And bright clear water"

Carolena said:

We lost a very close friend last week in a very sudden and tragic way. This poem has given me some solace

Click to expand...

I typically avoid poetry like the plague but that piece you put up is outstanding. I'm going to print it off and keep it. Very, very cool way of looking at things.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write it out and post it.

Cheers,

GFC said:

This last quote is one I read today. It’s from the June 2015 issue of Power & Motoryachts. It is from the book “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck.

“Once a journey is designed, equipped and put into process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari an exploration is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has a personality, temperament, individuality, uniquesness.

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policy and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip takes us."

Click to expand...

This one really resonated with me as well. I really enjoyed that book. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. There's even a heroic tale of how he saved his own boat from a hurricane.

"Fft" - Charley

Great thread!

Here's a sailing song that event his old stinkpotter can't resist, CSN's Southern Cross:

Got out of town on a boat
Goin' to Southern Islands
Sailing a reach
Before a followin' sea
She was makin' for the trades
On the outside
And the downhill run
To Papeete
Off the wind on this heading
Lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the waterline
Nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon
I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized
Why twice you ran away
Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices callin'
What Heaven brought you and me
Cannot be forgotten
(Been around the world)
I have been around the world
(Lookin')
Lookin' for that woman-girl
(Who knows she knows)
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time
You understand now
Why you came this way
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from
Is so small
But it's as big as the promise
The promise of a comin' day
So I'm sailing for tomorrow
My dreams are a dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you
Tied with a silver chain
I have my ship
And all her flags are a flyin'
She is all that I have left
And music is her name
Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices callin'
What Heaven brought you and me
Cannot be forgotten
(I been around the world)
I have been around the world
(Lookin')
Lookin' for that woman-girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
And you know it will, yes
So we cheated and we lied
And we tested
And we never failed to fail
It was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody fine will come along
Make me forget about loving you
And the Southern Cross

The pragmatic in me...

The sea's in my veins, my tradition remains
I'm just glad I don't live in a trailer.

JB

Sea Fever of course, but of late this quote has resonated with me:

One of the reasons things can be hard to part with is that we invest them with value they don't really have. We bought things for who we wanted to be so we mourn not being that person now. If you can concentrate instead on who you are becoming it will help. Linda Sand.

The sea is selective. Slow at recognition of effort and aptitude, but fast in sinking the unfit.

Reisenberg saying, NY Maritime.

The maintenance log book left me by the PO of my boat had a quote from MARK TWAIN on the cover that hit a chord with me " GETTING OLD IS JUST THE PROCESS OF MIND OVER MATTER__IF YOU DON'T MIND- IT DOESN'T MATTER"

Northern Spy said:

The sea is selective. Slow at recognition of effort and aptitude, but fast in sinking the unfit.

Reisenberg saying, NY Maritime.

Click to expand...

Oh God... this brought back a lot of memories that I'd successfully forgotten.

A bit of drift

Nothing to do with boating - sorry for the drift, but when we lost our dear Springer Spaniel several years ago I was Googling "where do you bury a dog"(we live in town and this was a real concern) and found this editorial - it brought solace then, and I have shared it with several friends since. If you have lost a dog or have a friend that has lost one, I hope this helps you also:
[FONT=&quot]Where Shall I Bury My Dog[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
There is one place to bury a dog. If you bury him in this spot he will come to you when you call – come to you over the grim dim frontiers of death and down the well remembered path to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs they shall not growl at him nor resent his coming for he belongs there.
People may scoff at you who see no slightest blade of grass bent by his foot fall,who hear no whimper, people who never really had a dog. Smile at them for you know something that is hidden from them and which is well worth knowing.
The one place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.


Answer to the question “Where Shall I Bury My Dog” Editorial, Ontario Newspaper circa 1900[/FONT]

Wayfarer said:

Oh God... this brought back a lot of memories that I'd successfully forgotten.

Click to expand...

Does it make you feel like doing push ups?

LOL

How about this...

But men and officers must obey no matter at what cost to their feelings for obedience to orders instant and unhesitating is not only the lifeblood of the army but the security of the state.

Northern Spy said:

The sea is selective. Slow at recognition of effort and aptitude, but fast in sinking the unfit.

Reisenberg saying, NY Maritime.

Click to expand...

Northern Spy said:

Does it make you feel like doing push ups?

LOL

How about this...

But men and officers must obey no matter at what cost to their feelings for obedience to orders instant and unhesitating is not only the lifeblood of the army but the security of the state.

Click to expand...

Oh god, no...

ME EYES IS STARS
ME TEETH IS SPARS

ME HAIR IS HEMP AND SEAWEED

AND WHEN I SPITS, I SPITS TAR

...please make the voices stop...

​

[POEM] Walk Within You by Nicholas Evans​

If I be the first of us to die, Let grief not blacken long your sky.
Be bold yet modest in your grieving. There is a change but not a leaving.
For just as death is part of life, The dead live on forever in the living. And all the gathered riches of our journey, The moments shared, the mysteries explored, The steady layering of intimacy stored,
The things that made us laugh or weep or sing, The joy of sunlit snow or first unfurling of the spring,
The wordless language of look and touch, The knowing, Each giving and each taking, These are not flowers that fade, Nor trees that fall and crumble, Nor are they stone,
For even stone cannot the wind and rain withstand And mighty mountain peaks in time reduce to sand.
What we were, we are. What we had, we have. A conjoined past imperishably present.
So when you walk the woods where once we walked together And scan in vain the dappled bank beside you for my shadow,
Or pause where we always did upon the hill to gaze across the land, And spotting something, reach by habit for my hand,
And finding none, feel sorrow start to steal upon you,
Be still. Clear your eyes. Breathe.
Listen for my footfall in your heart. I am not gone but merely walk within you.

She did / She does but I still grieve the loss of my firstmate / deckhand of sea and life
Ted

Hobson's Choice, Wall Street Journal May 14, 1952

I have the copy I sent to me from the office of the Chief of Naval Operations along with my orders to take command of a ship. That'll sober you up!

And of course, Rear Admiral Hopwood's enduring The Laws of the Navy begiinng with:

Now these are Laws of the Navy,
Unwritten and varied they be;
And he that is wise will observe them,
Going down in his ship to the sea;

As naught may outrun the destroyer,
Even so with the law and its grip,
For the strength of the ship is the Service,
And the strength of the Service, the ship.

It's not having what you want but wanting what you have. Sheryl Crow

And all your money not another minute buys. Kansas

A fool will lose tomorrow looking back at yesterday. (Can't remember)

That dog one made me cry...

Yeah, been living with dogs since age 5. Cried a lot, but smiled more -

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray." Rumi

"Normality is a paved road. It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it."

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose to live
And shame the land from which we sprang.

'Tis true, life isn't much to lose
But young me think it is
And we were young...

SFC Douglas Ide, Soldier magazine, sometime in the mid-80's. Never forgot that poem.