THE CRUISE

 

 

THE CRUISE

 

"We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time."------Little Gidding, Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot

 

"...in the stillness/ Between two waves of the sea./ Quick now, here, now, always---/A condition of complete simplicity." (Ibid)

 

A condition of stillness pursues you,

wherever you find your exile, at sea

or in any exploration. You will be there.  

It is your image on the mirror: an old

longing for the simplicity long lost

in the shuffle of life, loves, and losses.  

Every wave that beats on the ballast

asks: Are you happy at last? Will this

outlast the lingering left-over dread?  

Out there where waves break at the edge

of the firmament of quiet stars on stars

you can see through moving darkness.

Where have all the pains remained?

On what shores did you neglect to load

them, overstaying albatross of gloom?  

Your heart leaps with the bobbing bow

and stern, and you whisper a prayer

drowned quickly by the sea. You laugh.  

They cannot haunt you anymore than

dead memories can bear you down.

You have built a mansion of dreams.  

You have been here before, haven’t you?

Exploring the depths of what happiness

you could grab, you will hold them,  

and will never let them slip away; you

have earned them. In this brief exile

on the sea, would you hold on to this  

sudden grace of simple stillness?

Will this still simplicity pursue you

wherever you roam? Come home then.  

 

--- Albert B. Casuga