( Read more... )

For Stephen
South Atlantic, 1812

'Forgive me, Jack: sometimes I am compelled to be devious. I do not do it from choice.'

--Desolation Island

O Make Me A MaskO make me a mask and a wall to shut from your spies ( Read more... )

For Stephen
Kerguelen Island, 1811

Wash of Cold RiverWash of cold river ( Read more... )

For wandering Stephen

OdysseusAlways the setting forth was the same ( Read more... )

For Stephen
Aboard the Lively, off the coast of Spain, October 1804

'Shall we have some music after tea? I have written a piece I should like you to hear. It is a lament for the Tir nan Og.'

'What is the Tir nan Og?'

'The only bearable part of my country: it vanished long ago.'

--Post Captain

from The Wanderings of OisinAnd then young ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

For Stephen, dreaming of Mona
Menorca, 19 April 1800

for scieppan

He had been quite unprepared for this particular blow, striking under every conceivable kind of armour, and for some minutes he could hardly bear the pain, but sat there blinking in the sun.

"Christ," he said at last. "Another day."

--Master and Commander

Why did I dream of you last ( Read more... )

For Stephen, in the garden of the Lord
Pulo Prabang, 1813

Beneath all the physical tension there was an even greater happiness than before, that of a fulfilment that had gone beyond any anticipation, and of something not far from the beatific vision.

--Thirteen Gun Salute

God's GrandeurThe world is charged with the grandeur of God ( Read more... )

For Stephen, between fate and fate
Indian Ocean, 1804

They were poised high above the surface of the sea... Stephen had asked him a question. 'Had he ever considered the ship thus seen as a figure of the present -- the untouched sea before it as the future -- the bow-wave as the moment of perception, of immediate existence?'

--H.M.S. Surprise

( Read more... )

For Stephen, following Jack

Elegance

It
Is not easy
To stop thinking ill
Of others.

Usually one must enter into a friendship
With a person

Who has accomplished that great feat himself.
Then

Something
Might start to rub off on you
Of that

True
Elegance.

--Hafiz