Frank Gay

Sailing, Sailing Frank Gay

The lead set of poems started out simply enough. They were going to be a narrative in the style of Homer's Odyssey with me as the lead character. I had opted for the army because my father and his family had wound up in the army all the way back to the revolution. Mother's family had all been Quakers so their choices did not weigh too heavily. When I returned home, I had more sea time than did most of my ex-navy friends. I also found that, if you crave heroism, an army general hospital is probably not the best venue for the search. Marshalling the events of my adventure, it became clear that my story was closer to that of Odysseus' crew than to that of Odysseus. You will recall that Odysseus always came up with a diamond from the bottom of the manure pile while his crew wound up under the pile. The urge to tell the story was still there and "Sailing" is the result. Not quite heroic but a bit of fun - in memory - when the rough edges have been worn off by time.