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Depths

Submitted by Gracy on Tue, 2020-04-21 11:36

We round Cape Horn,
ahead of dawn;
gargantuan waves
bear down on plunging ship
skirting Islas de los Estados,
head straight for Malvinas.

Gale, hurtling clouds,
we stand on deck,
strapped to railings,
our eyes peering from woollen balaclavas
at implausible ocean swell.

Malvinas: aloof, windswept isles,
sheep, low vegetation and peat.
Midsummer chill.
Puerto Argentino’s slate-tiled roofs,
glassed sun porches, superb flowers.
Man-made miracle; shipshape
town on uttermost archipelago of planet.

Today these images visit me.
Grey Buenos Aires skyline:
gazing out my window
I harken to fathomless depths.

Winter solstice.
Sorrowful sense of Ocean’s idylls.
I feel you embrace me
from distant seas
dropping by when I most need you.

Review Request (Intensity): 
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Last few words: 
Argentina claims these islands, therefore I have used the names they've had over the centuries. Juan Manuel de Rosas, an Argentine dictator during 20 years of the 17th. century, asked a British captain to defend the islands from roving Portuguese, Chileans and pirates. Rosas was a friend of the Brits and he trusted them to guard all of Argentine Patagonia as well. That's when the islands were colonized and never given back.
Editing stage: 
Editing - rough draft

Comments

Gracy

Tue, 2020-04-21 21:28

Gracy's picture
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Thank you, Jerry. Cabo de Hornos and Tierra del Fuego are divided between Argentina and Chile. It was quite stormy when we rounded it on an Italian cruiser. In my cabin we felt sick, but up on deck the cold air cures all. Fancy going in a submarine! Recently, we lost a submarine with 47 crew. There was an international search for it, but nothing was found. Terrible...
Glad you like my poem. I wrote it some years ago. And yes, I have been in several storms, one on the Aegean sea comes to mind now. It was on the way to Rhodes...long story.
All the best and keep safe.

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"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies; fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends.” – Freddie Mercury

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lovedly

Wed, 2020-04-22 11:53

lovedly's picture

You remind me of my youth
when two books I mugged up
one
MACBETH
the other
FARAWAY AND LONG AGO
Buenos Aires

THE SOUTH AMERICAN ORCHARDS
where young boys had little else to do
but pull pigtails of girls
and eat frsh luscious peaches
each more than two

Gracy

Wed, 2020-04-22 13:47

Gracy's picture
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Hi, I did indeed spend my childhood on a farm in the green valley of Río Negro province. Those were the happiest days I can remember, eating apples, peaches and you name it, we had them. Except citrus.
Yes, I was fortunate to have Macbeth simplified, so that when I went to high school it was far easier to learn, even by heart, you know, the soliloquies. "Far away and long ago" is more about the most southern areas of Argentine Patagonia, not Buenos Aires. I now live near a tourist town called Bariloche in Patagonia. Terrible for our economy, because all this beautiful area thrives on international tourism.
Did you live on a farm, as well? Thanks for dropping by and telling me about your memories.

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"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies; fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends.” – Freddie Mercury

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