To China
Past islands green & pleasant sailed;my heart on billows rose!
Each passing junk’s fanned canvas hailed
sentimental repose.
Our ship did glide on sea of gold,
height’ning my desire
For God’s great plan to now unfold
on Chariot of Fire!
I see
I see the sea.
An endless surge toward the horizon
that moves the spirit to imagine.
Take a moment. Imagine your sails
catch the wind and carry you
to a place where new possibilities
flow.
Pick one and go!
The Mediterranean Sun
As the sun sets and lands on the shore,
which earlier was storm-tossed but now exudes charm,
the boys are in bed and the dishes are done
and the thoughts of Monday don’t yet cause alarm.
The peace of God has quieted the town
that was filled with horns and bells and more.
Join us here now, though far away,
and feel the peace that’s coming ashore.
The Return
When I first came to China’s shores,
twas to a time that lives no more
except in what the poets write
about the decades lost to night.
And once again as I step forth
into that land where history’s worth
is eclipsed by what lies ahead,
I scratch and shake my greying head.
And when I leave those jasmine hills
and lay to rest my ink and quill,
will new poets come ashore,
or has the ink been all outpoured?
Children of the Sea
There is a land beneath the sea
where children play like Manatees.
Instead of feet, they all have fins;
between their fingers they grow skin.
I’d take you there, but, sad to say,
you would not last a single day.
The kids there breathe with gills, not lungs;
but here’s a secret—they thirst to run!
They peek above the waves at you
and dream of joining games you do.
Their poets write of grassy lands
where kids have lungs and feet and hands!
A Fisherman from Hong Kong
A fisherman in Hong Kong
put his shorts and thongs on
and got into his sampan
to leave his crowded island.
He sailed the open waters
out where there are no borders;
he caught a fish and fried it
and found some gold inside it.
He didn’t need the gold piece,
so, threw it to some seaweed.
The seaweed made an island
for the fisherman to live in.
The fisherman from Hong Kong
has his shorts and thongs on
but rarely sails his sampan–
he loves his private island!
Ship School
A ship set sail around the world with a dozen children as crew;
their parents knew that the very best school was to learn from the winds as they blew.
A wind led their ship to a jungle King, a Tiger with a long gray beard,
who told them of secrets that jungle folk knew before any school had appeared.
Just then, a new wind did whistle and blow across their ship’s wide cargo hold;
it called them to sail … this time to the sands of a desert with Camels and gold.
They talked to the Camels and talked to the gold, but only the Camels talked back.
They drew their conclusions, then boarded their ship as a wind blew them towards an ice pack.
A Polar Bear told them of danger and strength and of how he survives freezing cold;
then a wind blew them back to their mountain homeland … On return … all twelve children seemed old!
That ship that sails the winds of the world sets off with children as crew,
but it never returns till years equal miles … Ah, what a fabulous school they’ve been through!