An Encounter On The Promenade Poem by Michael Durcan

As I walked along the promenade
A wedding to attend
An old sailor stood before me
My way I could not wend

He held me there with his glittering eye
I had to stop and stay
I could not move to left or right
I could not make my way

He told me how his ship left port
And sailed towards the sun
And after many hour
The land in sight was gone

The strong wind, it drove them south
Soon over the equator
And then the ice appeared
With bergs upon the water

Then far from land they saw a bird
It was an albatross
Wings wider than an armspan
And as white as the rimy frost

It followed them for many days
It silently soared above
It was a constant companion
Upon their ocean rove

One day for sport he took his bow
And aimed it at the bird
The bolt tore flesh and bones and then
Its final cry he heard

The wind died with the bird at once
The sea calm as a pond
Their progress then came to halt
They could not move beyond

After many days, the water spent
The crew all dead but one
‘Twas only our narrator left
To make his voyage home

The rain then fell and broke the drought
The wind began to moan
It drove the ship around to north
It timbers creaked and groaned

Who set the sails, who steered the ship?
It was the ghastly crew
Who silently climbed the rigging
While the wind more strongly blew

They crossed the tropics, the ghastly crew
And still they hurried north
Until our sailor saw the church
Above his own home port

The pilot's boat, it rescued him
And brought him to dry land
And stepping off the deck
He could but barely stand

And since that day, he has to stop
Each person one in three
And when his tale is finished
Once more I will be free