Semblance

"Salt, sea, and air are we ..." Words become the very waves on which the vessel sails in this collaboration with poet and writer, Eleanor Perry-Smith. As a nod to history, the poem was written in a sixteenth-century English manor and crosses the Atlantic in its use of Spencerian script, the first American-style penmanship. This script was first inspired by the flow of moving water; it circulates back to its original muse in both form and function as the script becomes the sea. The words themselves are the image and their cadence lulls like water, sending out whispers of a sailor’s tale.   Semblance: "Salt, sea and air are we who wander 'cross the globe, Yet tale be told and night behold the hour my shadow froze   Voyage set as those before crate packing merrily, We pushed from port forevermore but unbeknownst to me   The tide set high, vessel set sail sun skipping on the waves, How can it be this shining sea is also host to graves?   My thoughts turned bright and chest filled tight with heaven’s purest wind, A red sky rose to our delight a gift from our glowing friend   The crew at ease with such degrees our latitude assured, Our gullets soaked in God’s brown ale went sleeping filled with his word   But ‘ere the cover of the night cast horrors yet unseen, Water frothed and shook about as souls rose from beneath to feed   A cry rang from the crow’s nest and I, but half awake, Rose to face with hazy grace the threat my life to take   Yet we were unprepared as such for on what our eyes did gaze, the dripping apparitions cast from the ocean’s deepest graves   Our fortune set to rising the dawn began to wake, but it eclipsed and so we missed the chance our souls to save   The crescent of the orb shown behind the cold moon rock, Not enough glory to command our banshees to stop   They swept throughout the vessel the crew they petrified, Covered in a binding frost Yet somehow I survived!   The soul it did not see me and in a manner I don’t claim to know, Protruding light concealed my bones and curse was cast upon my shadow   At last the light awakened gulls called out to the day, alone I sat upon the deck all hands were swept away   Though the sun it blistered on my back it bluntly shined, As I stared upon the planks I was lacking in an outline   Feeling as half a man revenge grabbed hold my heart, I would wait for those savage souls and take back my shadow in the dark   As night sank in, once again those spooks rose up to feed, and surprised they were, as with my torch I sought what belonged to me   Alas I found it nowhere but the spooks I recognized, They were my own crew from before yet in their damned disguise   I was born a fighter a sailor second best, So sailing about forevermore, I roam till my outline sinks back into my chest."   For more on Eleanor Perry-Smith and her writing, please visit http://www.ep-s.com/ Pen and Ink Limited Edition of 300 Jake Weidmann © 2015