Mike Vogel: Voyage Journal

Transcript

Date:  July 24, 2014  Page Kept By: Mike Vogel

38th VOYAGE

Caught unaware by the turn of the tide,
She slips once more down to the sea.
Time, with its swirls and its eddies,
Flows quietly under her keel
While memories slowly awaken
And dreams of the hunt become real.

Long lay the Morgan in harbor
Safe from the storms of the sea,
Time dimming dreams of the whaling,
Years stealing hopes of return.
While home is a haven, an eddy,
Each breeze spoke of voyages spurned.

From the wood of the land they once built her,
But her soul was soon claimed by the sea.
Time brought the change that becalmed her,
Yet she still spoke to men of her dreams
‘Til new crews of shipwrights and sailors
Could turn her once more to the stream.

No longer with whales as her quarry,
It’s knowledge she seeks on the sea.
Time is a try-works of history,
Seeking essence in stories and lore;
Its fires still burn through the ages
Drawing truth from humanity’s core.

Now the focus of hunting has shifted,
Like patterns of wind on the sea.
Time gives the vessel new meaning
As a symbol of what we hold fast,
Of our hopes and our dreams and our journey
To a future we shape with our past.

And I, on the helm south of Boston,
Can feel her new bond with the sea.
Time slips, waves roll and dreams waken,
As the Morgan once more is set free,
And her hold slowly fills with the memory
Of a voyaging deep within me;

For we’re carried by tides but our hopes still prevail
And time is a sea everlasting:
I have heard the wind whisper in a tall ship’s sails
And I no longer mourn for their passing.

Michael N. Vogel, 38th Voyager, July 2014