Oh Captain! Poem by Steve Woodward

I dredge with incommunicable folly
Through the silt which fills my mind
Across to the bountiful shores of a melancholy
Wistful as a soft sea breeze.

I do not remember setting sail
Or counting stocks.
Fixing ropes.
But swallowing knots has become a nature
Common with a pinch of salt.

It seems inescapable now
As the tides roll in
That I will drown here amidst the silt of mind
Ah but how deep in the ocean one has to dive
To find that one elusive pearl.