PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I don't know if I even have: I don't know if I even have sufficient words adequate to the compliment that this magnificent poem deserves! That said, I will offer a comparison.  In the Fascimile And Transcript of the original manuscripts of T. S. Eliot's poem, The Waste Land, the fourth section, the Death By Water section, contains a long poem (until Pound stupidly deleted it) about a sea voyage, a horrific sea voyage that ends in a ghastly tragecy as relentless winds drive a fishing trawler northward to crash against a huge ice floe on which ravenous polar bears are waiting.  When I first read the Fascimile in the summer of 1977, I was fascinated by the whole thing---but enormously horrified by the every effective language of the Death By Water section.  Your poem---despite its different narrative voice and setting---reminds me of the horrific power of Eliot's nautical poem, and I mean that to be a sincere and admiring compliment to your verbal skill. But . . . you have done something that Eliot did not apparently think to do.  In your poem, the sea is as much a character as the narrator and his friend; and that is a brilliant strategy to deploy in this poem.  At first, I was a little put off by the magic references, and then I realized that this may very well be a poem in the genre of Magic or Marvelous Realism, so upon my second look at the poem it fit right in.  And like Eliot's narrator in the Death By Water, the speaker is revealed to be already dead.  If you have read the Fascimile, the pattern of allusion is excellent; if you have not read it, then the coincidence goes to the brilliance of your talent, which sought the same kind of resolution of the narrative that Eliot did.  And, regardless of direct allusion or happy coincidence, the Poem is not only one of the finest of yours that I have read, it is one of the finest nautical poems that I have read in a very long time.  Until this afternoon, I did not think I would ever see a poem as great, as beautifully horrific, and as much of an end-shock as the original Death By Water.  But your poem has proven that another seaside poem is as great as Eliot's; and I am grateful to have been around long enough that our paths at postpoems have intersected, and that I have been privileged to read this wonderful and poignantly dramatic poem.  

With the utmost respect, I: With the utmost respect, I must disagree with the word "poor."  I have seen "poor" on this site, and your poem is nothing like that.  Your poem is very descriptive, with a sharp focus on detail to give its content a highly realistic resonance.  I read the poem with great interest, and I certainly hope you will write more like it.  Having read Poetry since 1973, and writing it since 1994, I think I have a bit of credibility behind me when I say that this poem is not, in any way, "poor."

Why sorry?: Why sorry?

Thanks! I was very much: Thanks! I was very much trying to capture that feeling.

Thank you kindly.: Thank you kindly.

You're welcome. The very same: You're welcome. The very same to you : )

Thanks for the comment.  I: Thanks for the comment.  I have the same problems, but the poem addresses the deliberate disregard of legitimate comments---a disregard practiced routinely by two poets I have in mind particularly.