Floyd Beaver is a good friend and neighbor. He has written several books I have admired, including particularly his memoir of service in the U.S. Navy from 1939 to 1945, before and during World War II, Sailor from Oklahoma (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009). Over the course of that war he served in fifteen ships, saw combat in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Pacific. He barely escaped with his life when Japanese aircraft sank his ship near the Solomon Islands in April 1943. He was discharged in September 1945 as a Chief Signalman, having been promoted for meritorious conduct in action.
I asked Floyd if I could publish in Rekonings a poem that had struck me. He graciously agreed, and added the following brief introduction:
"Everywhere, in all lands and in all times, there are men serving
through the hard and narrowing ending years of their lives. Some lucky few
of these men will have the comforting and still glowing memories of youthful
times spent beyond the sea's horizons, no matter how long before, to ease
their ways from the world of living men. It is for these men that this
little poem is written."
You Taunting Sea
Relent, you cruel and taunting sea,
And lift from me your blighting curse.
Just let me be content to live
Away from wars and storms and worse.
Oh, close my eyes to flaunted lures
Of trade wind clouds in foreign skies,
Of weaving masts among the stars,
And heaven's fires where pack ice lies.
And dull my ears to siren songs
Of buoy bells in foggy nights,
Of cry of gull and crash of surf
And lookouts' call for harbor lights.
And cleanse my heart of pagan thrill
At thrust of decks against my feet
And wipe away remembered years
That chain my mind in cold defeat.
Oh, let me lose this haunting urge
To sail again in dripping dawns.
Please, let me find the quiet and rest
That others know on peaceful lawns.
- Floyd Beaver