A Sailor's Lament - Part V
Requiescat in Mare
Sea in stormy weather (Jean Antoine Théodore Gudin, 1844)
V. Requiescat in Mare
Silence falls between the moonlit shafts
Piercing through the shimmering firmament,
Slow currents carve eternal epitaphs
And bear the corpus cold in its descent.
A silver schola for a silent choir
Whispers antiphons processing past
A bed of sand and stone for funeral pyre,
Shadow impassable for pall and casket.
"Here at the perishing of light,
Here at the end of searching sight,
Where these are the exacting price
Of fortitude and sacrifice,
There lies a sailor."To Be Continued
The rising light across the deep Awakes the harbour from its sleep...



Just gorgeous.
Wonderful, Thomas. Love the gentle descriptions, the slight alliteration in the lines, and how the last one sticks out so strongly. Lots of great choices made.