The Poet and the Sea
A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, he said,
for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't.
But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.
— John Milton Synge
The poet unafraid is hardly a poet at all,
but dull in understanding
of the power and impotence in his hands.?,,
.?
’?
The poet is a deep-sea diver,
in search of those pearls of great price
in the depths of humanity,
knowing he may well drown.
The poet is a storekeeper
of the ancient and modern things
that make up who we are,
who gives them away at much less than their value,
and risks his storehouse going bankrupt
for his labour and troubles.??,,?,?
Poetry is like the sea and, as Synge said,
a man who is not afraid
of the sea will soon be drowned,
but we are afraid of the sea
and some of us drown anyway.
