Harry Kemp Poems

Hit Title Date Added
1.
Blind

The Spring blew trumpets of color;
Her Green sang in my brain --
I heard a blind man groping
"Tap -- tap" with his cane;
...

2.
A Seaman's Confession Of Faith

As long as I go forth on ships that sail
The mighty seas, my faith, O Lord, won't fail;
And while the stars march onward mightily
...

3.
A Sailor's Life

Oh, a sailor hasn't much to brag -
An oilskin suit and a dunnage bag.
But, howsoever humble he be,
By the Living God, he has the sea!
...

4.
The Doldrums (A Still-Life Picture)

The sails hang dead, or they lift and flap like a cornfield scarecrow's coat,
And the seabirds swim abreast of us like ducks that play, a-float,
...

5.
The Remedy

When you've failed with ordered people, when you've sunk neck-deep again
In the sluggish wash and jetsam of the slackened tides of men,
Don't get old and mean and bitter, - there's a primal remedy -
Just take a ship to sea, my lad, just take a ship to sea.
...

6.
A Whaler's Confession

Three long years a-sailing, three long years a-whaling,
Kicking through the ice floes, caught in calm or gale,
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7.
Farewell

Tell them, O Sky-born, when I die
With high romance to wife,
That I went out as I had lived,
Drunk with the joy of life.
...

8.
A Wheat-Field Fantasy

As I sat on a Kansas hilltop,
      While, far away from my,
Rippled the lights and shadows
      Dancing across acres of wheat,
...

9.
Going Down In Ships

Going down to sea in ships
Is a glorious thing,
Where up and over the rolling waves
The seabirds wing;
...

10.
Shanghaied

Shanghaied! . . . I swore I'd stay ashore
And sail the wide, wide seas no more! . . .
Shanghaied! Shanghaied!
...

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