Poetry #2: Eulogy for the Watermen
Eulogy for the Watermen
You watched the birth of day;
Dawn casts waves of gold.
And only you understand
the salt on the breeze,
The tears in the valleys,
The wind through the trees.
I watched you:
To catch the warm morning light,
You,
Lone watermen,
Fished in the icy cold water.
I have come to know,
And you know as well,
The Eastern breeze is sick.
And for that, this Eulogy is made:
Do you hear the sea cry?
Do you,
Lone watermen?
It echoes that
of your forefathers.
Photos were taken in Maryland, with a Sony Alpha5000. VSCO was used for the editing.
Here is my translation of all 4 stanzas:
Stanza 1: The Watermen is in tune with his watery nature from early in the morning.
Stanza 2: I, the narrator (a person or God), am aware of your actions.
Stanza 3: Both the narrator and the Watermen are aware of impending doom (death).
Stanza 4: This Eulogy is about the Watermen, and everyone dies in the end.
What does everyone else think about the possible meanings?
When I used to live in Maryland, I would go down to a harbor with my friends to see their sailboat. Towards the end of the pier, there was a larger and unique boat, called a skipjack. The sailor who owned the boat also lived on it. I was fortunate enough to have gotten to talk to this man's son; an eleven year old boy named Hannes. He was, and still is to this day, one of the wisest people I know and his intelligence struck me as almost impossibly vast. He was certainly more intelligent than I was when I was 11.
Anyway, he told me of how his father inherited the skipjack from his father, and they made a living fishing and crabbing on the bay. It did not escape me in our conversations that there was an underlying tone of longing and sorrow. Hannes knew his family's tradition, once common on the Chesapeake Bay, was dying. This ending of a way of life corresponds hand-in-hand with the decline in health of the Chesapeake Bay itself, and since that meeting many years ago I've joined the CBF (Chesapeake Bay Foundation) and written this poem as, more or less, a eulogy.
"Generations of independent fishermen have found a home on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Called watermen regionally, they share a love of the estuary and of making a living by harvesting blue crabs, finfish, and oysters.
Watermen toil alone or in small groups. Their commitment to one of America’s most treasured natural resources earns them a measure of respect throughout the Chesapeake region."
http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/topics/watermen/watermen
I love the warm, naturalistic imagery here set against the cold darkness of the theme. It really gives gravitas to the lone watermen refrain.
Many thanks! The duality with the seemingly serene is to contrast against the fact that a way of life is dying.
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