O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up -- for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Strangely enough, this is a quote I associate with Firefly above all else - even though (according to my impeccable source) it was never actually in the show. Unless you count references to "Captain Tightpants" Even so, it has become a meme for Firely fans possibly because Mal was the doomed captain of a successful ship.

And now, for those of us who have followed the Tuesday Poem, with the end of an era is almost upon us,the Tuesday Poem blog I would like to thank the two people who captained the ship, Mary McCallum, and more recently Helen Lowe. Both of whom are accomplished poets and writers well worth the read.

I would love to wish everybody a great week, stay strong, and maybe enjoy some more poetry at the Tuesday blog, or check out my Firefly poem Eulogy to battles lost.

Firefly

Wings melted
feathers flown
Icarus,
you promised me the sun
and then you
                  fell
burning from the sky
in flames and smoke
into a boiling sea.

Icarus,
you promised me the sun

I'd like to give it back

 
A.J. Ponder 

(After a different sort of Firefly? try here at Eulogies for Battles Lost)

 Picture: Pieter Brueghel's, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (circa1558)

 I'm the editor of the Tuesday poem this week and so of course I'd love for you to drop by and visit the poem I've chosen, Helen Lowe's, Fey -

"your door 
stands open still
at dusk...

 it's quite delicious, especially if you like just a touch of Other in your poetry.  And of course there's the whole Tuesday poem community in the sidebar with so many other accomplished poets and writers.  Well worth checking out. Have fun people and enjoy your week.

A.J. Ponder 

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

Eulogy to battles lost

As requested this is a little homage to Firefly / Serenity (written 23rd November 2010).  Although if you don't like such things, I still believe the last verse to be worth reading. And yes there is deliberately no full stop at the end, for hope should never end with such finality. 

Take my love

You cannot miss

Slipping into space

On rickety engines

Tied together with

Chewing gum

Take my land

There's power in the verse

Even as heroes

Fall to wayside robbery

To survive, to get even,

To hide the truth of

A world

A universe

Bought and sold

Take me where I cannot stand

Malcontents

Hanging on a thread

Doctors, preachers, thieves

Breaking bread

Hiding chocolate

Toting guns

Retorting hot as fire

And cold as reckoning

Fools staking out a claim

to what they cannot hold

I don't care

So long as I'm flying

The inevitable betrayal

Should not hurt

So very much

Mere boulders knocked downstream.

River

Waterfall quick

Tumbles into madness

And away

 

I'm still free

A pretence as deep and wide

As the sky itself

Bound with

foolish reason

Cut through with civility

You can't take the sky from me

Bereft, 

the rooms

entwined with flowers

lie empty

a memorial to

those who died

A testament to hope

A..J. Ponder - Amazon author page  (of course the highlighted lines are from Joss Whedon - I hope he can forgive me, given this is a homage to his show)