I am very, very, very
Fond of riding on the ferry.
There’s no traffic on the river,
So it’s easy to deliver
All the riders when expected
From the boats they have selected.
Up on top, the ride is breezy,
But in any seat, it’s easy
To gaze out at your surroundings
While the vessel’s leaps and boundings
Take you all around the city
For a taste of nitty-gritty.
Passengers of all persuasions
Ride for various occasions –
Workers heading to employment,
Tourist seeking pure enjoyment.
People-watching is rewarding.
Check out strangers while they’re boarding.
Hear the accents from their nations;
Eavesdrop on some conversations.
Ditch the subway, bus or taxi;
Turn your mini journey maxi
And your mood from tense to merry.
Hop on board a New York ferry!
I know for certain that memory’s a virus
We’re susceptible to in varying degrees
Infecting some, randomly chosen, like us
Memory drifts in on a gentle breeze
I’m switched to the channels of subtle perception
It’s due to the memory my life carries on
I flick through most precious of my recollections
They’ve been given to me until I shall be gone
Then I’ll be removed to the isle of the dead
There I’ll meet you, thanks to our memories
Something will be missing, though it must be like that
After long separations and many calls missed
But I reckon, subconsciously we’ll reconcile
With the loss of those lovely details, for we managed
To save some of them in our favorite style
Aren’t we also the details that time couldn’t damage?
Remember we gazed upon the green hills
From your bedroom window with breathtaking view
In our case they’ve been grinding too fast, those fab mills
So we’re not that exceedingly small to come through
Many trials and hindrances, daily calamities
All those stormy Mondays and Sundays alone
Here we’re bound to wait now, among the tall cypresses
For the ferry to moor, to deliver us home.
Tapping a biro against a mug
Waiting, but then it happens
We're closing for the day
God is sitting in my office
I've written a song for Bryan Ferry
Nobody but Bryan will do
But I don't know Bryan and
I have no way to get the song to him
Who is humming this to me?
I don't run away from the fire, I run straight towards it
I'm waiting by the phone
For the movie offer for my books
Me and Jericho, roof down, route 66
Undergoing much revision
They suspended the ferry
And blamed it on ice.
With weather so frigid,
Those grounds should suffice.
The notice described
The East River, which goes
North or south, both directions
Obstructed by floes.
The fleet is aluminum,
Making it tough
To navigate safely
With waters so rough.
I don’t take it often,
But those who commute
Must be wishing this ice
Will be given the boot.
Which is just like the hope
Minnesotans possess,
For both versions of ICE
Cause incredible stress.
Heard the sound of a horn this morning
Pulled back the curtains and realized
The night dream still must be going
The waves splashed by before my eyes
The tourist ferry had just moored
Passengers disembarked on the shore
It seems that your face has appeared
For a split second, or maybe more
I began to look closely, but very soon
I got dressed and hurried down the stairs;
The snow swirled under fainting moon
The streak of dawn spread in the air.
The ocean
Gave a gift to me
A coin for passage
Across the sea
To pay the ferryman
Should I need to cross
To light the lanterns
So I won't
Get lost
With an oar and a long boat
Down river goes the deal maker,
Ferrying another soul afloat
... For I am their taker ...
Black cloak 'round my shoulder
Two coins in my bony hand,
I bring the younger or older
Off to a more distant land
Paddling waters, still and gray
Done a million times or more,
Candle and lantern to light my way
Back and forth to each shore
My fee is due on your funeral day
Not long after a warm body dies,
So your spirit will not have to pay
May someone lay them on your eyes
'Tis no easy, nor grim task ...
For two thin coins of solid gold,
Death wears no ghoulish mask
Draped in peaceful shrouds of olde
Entrust unto me, the so-called reaper
Sent on down here by your maker,
Fear not me ... a gate keeper
This olde ferryman ... the taker.
What did I take away
from summer camp?
Not COVID
this year,
nor the clap
of one hand ringing.
But, instead
a more resilient health
of authentic sacred wealth
TransFormative dance
singing integrity's great
synergetic
bromance.
Polyphonic men
mind and body embracing
polypathic gods
re-imaging polytheistic goddesses
engaging all us in-between
communal transubstantiations.
My own spirited mind
and strong natured body
transition
has not been solely limited by Others'
lack of win/win imagination
But also,
perhaps primarily
and primally,
by my own
win straight mind
lose ***** body
trauma story,
His-poled v Her-holed history
Mind blaming
and body shaming
Left hemisphere's lack
of co-passioned pleasuring
Right-now transcendent
peak co-empathic mystery
More resiliently inquiring--
What transformative longing
does bromance take away
from summer's sacred belonging
mind and body camp?
“I wish the ferry had a fairy,” said Phoebe with a frown
to no one in particular (but everyone remembered later on).
That’s a strange thing to say on an excursion in Year 5,
especially when the teachers are around.
Eating hot chips on the seat just up from me,
a skinny man avoids my longing stare (Those chips of his, I wish were mine).
I hear a funny squawk. It isn’t me -
Chip-wishing seagulls probably, somewhere (I probably shouldn’t stare).
I cool my wishful eyes in harbour waves of green.
(The shore has nothing interesting to see –
No animals, I mean. Look -
Just - more - green.)
I hear a funny squawk. It’s under me!
No, it’s not a fairy penguin (as you may have been expecting).
“It’s a chook!” I scream…
…I scream = ice-cream…mmm…
I close my eyes and dream,
open one eye, have a sneaky look…It’s still a chook.
Ferry man elf rode in on a stream
From the River Styx, or at least it seemed….
We were a tiny bit afraid of this elf so gray.
He had appeared suddenly on this somber day.
Do you think he’s here to collect? Someone asked.
It would be mean, and it’s such an awful task!
We did not know, but we gave him a wide berth.
This ferry man elf who sprung from middle earth.
clearing morning mist
silhouetted hills in view
Arran ferry
By heck it was cold on the Humber ferry
The water was deep and Hull smelled like leather
May I mention the bridge it’s all there’s left
The boat man’s gone, it must be the Styx
Right it was cold on the Humber ferry
!ow I’m a widow from him who I married
His mother was Hilda his father was Harry
His father went fast but his mother did tarry
We could well have drowned her
If she had come on the ferry.
She remembered where she’d met Jerry.
It had been on a moving ferry,
She journeying to rejoin Kerry,
With whom life was mostly merry.
But Kerry Gangsters would soon bury,
Seal it and there shan’t be Query!
He had their rules broken with Terry;
A loss and she’d kept drinking Perry
And on Not-Stewed Rice: Beri-Beri…
No more appetite for Sweet Cherry
And rather little for Loved Berry…
Jerry could never be Nice Kerry:
One-Thousand-Times A Cheating Lover,
Though, she’d caught him not: Good Cover,
Falsely claiming being often busy
And that Life has not been quite easy...
From Killed Kerry to Cheating Jerry;
She’d continue to curse that ferry!
He was a young man traveling lightly with nothing much to carry
but his dreams and wide-eyed wonder
and a ticket for a ferry
Ride, across a river wide that meandered like nothing real
while looking for rhyme and reason
to come alive and learn to deal
With whom and what he was inside, deeper than the skies
he would soon be crossing over
with this new-found ferry ticket ride
Taking him to places he knew not where or when
Yet knowing he’d soon be racing time
like a moth against the wind
While waiting for the ferry boat still in his youthful prime
He heard the wind spin tails again and whisper “Time to ride.”
took trip on ferry
waves seemed to be so scary
sizes would vary
(that applies to both ferry and waves)
had been contrary
only fools take a ferry
ugly wife marry
ride ferry had urge
great idea did emerge
buy my ticket splurge
after trip would end
only small amount did spend
ferry my new friend
would rain more and more
on ferry started to pour
on each beach and shore
knew without a doubt
from ferry we caught a trout
saw whale which would spout
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