Armchair Sailor

I just completed a great Blog Hop initiated by the inimitable Helen Hollick. Through it, I came to know that many of their ladies were aboard ship at one time or another, loving a rogue pirate, or trying to regain a tropical inheritance.

(In case you missed those delightful glimpses into their fascinating books, check them out a couple of posts back under "Shining Light On Our Ladies").

Because of all those stories, I'd like to post this little tribute to the many courageous sailors out there.

Armchair Sailor

Don’t be like me!

Don’t waste your life in wishful fantasy!

Last night, I met the sailor

who dared to live my dream.

This Don Giovanni of the Sea,

having beguiled a hundred women

and who would love a dozen more,

has sailed the Seven Oceans, instead of me.

He’s listened to the tenor of his rigging,

and matched the joyous basso-buffo

of his anchor chain,

while harmonizing with his latest curvy mate

in the duets of love.

Quaintly sequestered coves on lushly verdant isles

replenished his bruised sailor’s soul.

Forgetting Neptune’s battering, it was

replaced by new-inspired quest for yet another goal.

He’s haggled with a multitude of tongues

and laughed with many-peopled hosts.

Traversing fatal shipping lanes and lame conventions,

he’s fended off the beckoning of unforgiving water ghosts.

He stole my dream!

I had to stay behind, on land.

How could I do otherwise?

He has a boat. He has no ties.

He also has the courage.

* * *

 (Excerpted from my "Moments of the Heart")

A Breath of Fall

A Breath of Fall

               

A trifle longer just each day

it takes the sun to drink away

the morning’s dew from fading green,

the last rain’s puddles left between
the twining roots of the old trees.

But helping winds with their new breeze

try fooling the suspicious eye

and make us think perhaps that—why—

it is still summer. Must be so.

We only started it just--months ago.

 * * *

Slowly Vanishing - From View, From Memory?

Sold, Defaced or Bulldozed, the Berlin Wall is slowly Vanishing

Peace: War’s Abandoned Grave

From its cache’d acorn womb

the seedling sprouts through pungent moss,

soon greened by a rambunctious spring’s exuberance.

The Westwind, taking pity, laughs and heaves

and trembles off the would-be devourer of tender leaves.

The sapling climbs toward the tranquil summer sky,

shading the meadow by the river,

until the Eastwind, cold and blustery,

defeats the balmy climes

and heralds in this city’s soon-to-come hart-breaking times.

Branches at half-mast, the tree holds silent vigil

against the rapings by lust-driven Ural-hordes.

Its meadow barren, flowers vanquished under iron treads,

the oak, denuded in the smoke-veiled morn’,

breathes acrid mist from the River Spree, forlorn.

Amber tears drip from the tree’s strafed bark

as the proud city, quartered by its raucous victors,

writhes in shredded ruin, a graveyard of the living dead.

A people torn apart, despaired,

as brother now must fear the brother whom war had spared.

A saw’s rasping bite takes hold;

the last tree topples at the cusp of dawn.

The oak’s green planks strain vainly toward freedom

from deep within the cursed Wall.

A fire-blackened church accuses, a grim reminder to them all.

The pendulum of time reverses.

Survivors hail their former foe.

To these living dead, abandoning their graves of war,

as if he were a citizen, but keener,

a young world leader avows peace with:

Ich bin ein Berliner!

* * *

(Excerpt from Moments of the Heart)
"In Moments of the Heart, you are in for a strange and wonderful trip, a most interesting read. Many of the individual pieces are quite unique. This is a writer of wide range and strength. Recommended."

Jim Bennett, KBR Review Team member.

* * *

President John F. Kennedy, right, stands on tower at the U.S. Army's Checkpoint Charlie overlooking the barbed wire wall dividing East and West Berlin, June 26, 1963. In background is East Berlin, Germany. Standing next to Kennedy is West German Chancellor Konrad Adenhauer, back to camera, and standing beside Adenhauer is West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, back to camera. (AP Photo)

In The Spotlight

All of my seven books are included in The Indie Tribe's May Spotlight.

You can check here:

http://www.theindietribe.com/category/may-spotlight/

You count six?

Well, Pasha too managed to get his whiskers in.

http://www.amazon.com/Inge-H.-Borg/e/B006QYQKUS – Amazon

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/505050 -  Smashwords

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/inge-h.-borg - Barnes & Noble

http://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomInge_H_Borg – Goodreads

For those of you who prefer to read a quality paperback, all my titles are available as such through Amazon.