Love and War

NOTE: Admiral Nimitz, upon reading this poem, had it forwarded to the Officer-in-Charge of escorting ships to be read to his officers and sailors.

CONVOY

(Dedicated to the United States Navy with admiration and gratitude. It was composed in May, 1942, to prophesy the eventual victory of America over Japan and Germany.)

Come here, my son,
I'll tell you a story
Of a breathless sea-trip
For God and Country.

'Twas in December,
Nineteen Forty-one,
When we weighed anchor
And followed the sun.

N0 friends, no loved-ones,
Came to see us off;
No bands, no ribbons
Bedecked the wharf.

We cleared the harbor
For some unknown fate;
And our last look was
Of the Golden Gate.

Twenty ships loaded
With thirty thousand men
Comprised our belliferous,
Ocean-going caravan.

The first day out
We admired the ocean;
But Night stirred our hearts
With apprehension.

Then came endless days
And sleepless nights
In hot, suffocating holds
With blacked-out lights.

Our old and filthy ship
Did stink so high
That God drew heaven higher
And higher into the sky.

I stepped down below
To inspect a hold,
What I saw there
Was Purgatory’s hole:

Poor, human cargo
In frightened sleep,
Piled neat like cordwood
Four high, fifty deep;

Sad, precious fodder
For the maws of War,
That’s what we mortals
Seem to be destined for:

[some 58 stanzas follow]

Thus we traveled
With fragile faith
Across the Ocean
Of the Shadow of Death.

S0 SHALL AMERICA
IN HER DESTINED COURSE
EMERGE FROM THE WAR
SAFE, FREE, AND VICTORIOUS!