Roots for a Troubadour

By Ashlee

I have a slight fascination with piracy and admittedly have read far too many books about it. However, rarely are women mentioned unless of course they are mistresses of some sort but I would like to have been a pirate with the sea for my home.

“Pirate-Woman”

Rough hands so raw and so dark

Imbedded with grains of sand

And salt off the ocean

Wind scarred and earth toned

 

Hair so long and so deep

Gnarled and tangled

Teeming with dust and dirt

And smelling of the sea

 

Although her skin is worn

She knows you’re wondering

Where she gets that glow

Well, she used to be a pirate

And she buried all the gold

Beneath her skin

 

Sails that snap and sound

Like the distant drums

Of an unknown tribe

On a land full of treasure

 

I read this next poem while taking a literature class; it was coupled with another great poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Again, I like the theme of the sea, as in ancient times it represented a state of chaos.

“Break, Break, Break” by Alfred Tennyson

Break, break, break
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.