The Ship – Peter and Margie Benziger
It is with a heavy heart that I read about the passing of Lorenzo. I am happy he passed peacefully in his sleep.
We first met Lorenzo when we sailed into Zihuatanejo, in 2017, aboard our sailboat, Peregrina.
As a sailor, I now think of Lorenzo as setting sail. He, indeed, would make a stout ship. The poem below is a perfect tribute to a fine shipmate.
——
The Ship
I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, ‘There she goes!
Gone where? Gone from my sight – that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of her destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
‘There she goes!’ There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
‘Here she comes!’
——–
God Bless You Lorenzo.
Safe seas and calm winds,
Peter and Margie Benziger
6 October 2020
