Halfway between the familiar harbor

And our destination, soon it seemed

Partway between nowhere and nowhere;

The stars we counted on to plot our course

Fled before a mass of ghostly clouds.

And there was nothing more to guide us

But the ship’s log and compass,

A scribbled record of our starting out

And the wobbling arrow of direction,

Vague tokens of the past and present,

And the sensation of speed and distance

In the puffed sail, the rope in our wake.

As for the future: The vision of a coast

Unknown and indescribable seemed

The more precious the longer we were lost.

Day dawned upon fog as dense as night.

And some, after many days like this

Turn upon each other in blind rage,

Dive headlong from the foretop,

Or drown in grog, forgetting

Why we ever left home, signed on

For such a voyage, to a land unknown

When nothing had been promised beyond hope.