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Alan Marshall Clark's avatar

It's always a pleasure to find new (for me) Audens.

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KR (Kenneth Rosen)'s avatar

Ah, thanks for this posting and thanks to prior comments, Sean, Julia--nice to see Wystan leaning in with taut, relentless rhyme to God and the sun's acetylene design.

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Sloan Bashinsky's avatar

A different sort of fleet visit

SHANGHAIED

A calling to serve carries its own wisdom,

which legitimates both the calling and the serving

so that the two are one.

Only the one called to serve

can know this wisdom,

and for some who are called

the knowing comes easily,

while for others the knowing is a fiery baptism.

Each calling is different,

and while some callings can be declined,

others cannot,

and those whose calling is without repentance

know they are in it for the duration of the calling,

and while others may try to persuade them out of it,

the calling for ones such as these always prevails;

thus is it advised to all called for keeps

that they view their calling as a blessing

even when it seems at times to be a curse,

and that they try to reconcile the loss of their captain status

and allow the Spirit of God to man the helm of their ship,

and be glad and willing crew members thereon,

knowing that all sailing ships of souls

need a crew as well as a captain

to maintain and navigate the ship through

seas of many tones, depths and flavors;

so consider each league sailed

as part of the overall journey

going to where the captain deigns to go

by using whatever winds and sea currents available

to navigate the ship to the experiences

this ship and crew need to have

in order to fulfill their calling and its wisdom

revealed by the journey of many leagues,

many known only to the ship and its crew,

all of whom come to know,

some sooner than others,

that once conscripted

there is no safe jumping ship.

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Shahid Hussain Raja's avatar

Wonderful piece of literature. Thanks for sharing

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Kerry Bart-Raber's avatar

We found all that in our dad’s desk drawer just before the u Haul was going to leave with all the stuff we wanted from his house in Florida , that we think is about to sell finally just now.

How amazing and auspicious was finding that?!

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Kerry Bart-Raber's avatar

Also my great uncle served WW II in Darwin, Aus- I have phots and a letter Uncle Stan had written to my dad - complaining about gettingbwet Bombed his foxhole and his stationary got all wet- and he had to use nferior jap paper!!

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Kerry Bart-Raber's avatar

I once worked as a child care/ entertainment Au pair for a well- heeled family in Chicago- their special angels had 2 pinball games..., in the one study hung a b&whte t. S. Eliot , a poem about Merlin ...... ooooooooh

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Julia Provencial's avatar

Wow. I feel the principle action takes strong character to be vulnerable. Great literature.

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