Quotations and Literature Forum

Nice stuff. I like your style.
I’ve seen this remark attributed to T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Robert Browning:
“When I wrote this poem, only God and I knew what it meant; now, only God knows!”
It best describes this little ditty (I actually wrote it when a little wise sleepy owl icon I was using in my sig on another forum stopped working, so it started out to be a sort of "farewell" to it, and as is often the case, I just got carried away)

The Deep Trenches

Growing up tall with wide open eyes,
Hard life experience, he thinks he is wise,
Making mistakes, and with so many tries,
Learning truth is relative to anyone that lies,
And law is only important to the one who complies.
A cage is built around him, his freedom sacrificed.
Looking out of the cell, resigned now, he sighes,
Soon he breaks free through the window he pries,
Leaving his homeland and breaking all family ties,
Living in the deep trenches and followed by flies,
He is seen by the hunters, he says his goodbyes,
He flies at the gunfire, he falls, and he dies.

The Jackson Sun
Page 4-C
Outdoors
Hiiking in a Winter Wonderland
By Taylor Wilson
Feb. 10, 1994

Lexington's Steven Blow an avid outdoorsman and winter hiker of two years agrees that treading the trail in the "off months" can be rewarding.
"It's hard to say why people hike or backpack in winter, " Blow said.
"I guess it's a summons of sorts--a call to hikers, especially in the mountain areas," Blow said.

This was inspired by watching "Cast Away" for the umpteenth time, and by coincidence I have "The Perfect Storm" on the same tape, so I had this ocean and storm thing going....

Eye of the Storm

Our lives are filled with so much commotion,
Often times I feel like a ship on the ocean
That has pulled up anchor and is now adrift
In some dense fog that never will lift.

Gone from safe harbor and riding the waves,
Lost at sea, I've thrown my compass away.
No longer wondering what lies up ahead,
All that is certain, is one day I'll be dead.

Out here, so far away from the shore,
The Purpose of Life isn't clear anymore;
The world seems like it is still being born,
And I am watching it all from the eye of a storm.

The poem reminds me of The Perfect Storm more so than Cast Away. Cast Away was (in my opinion) a survival story while The Perfect Storm was (in my opinion) a tragedy. I took my family to see Cast Away on Christmas Eve 2000. After the movie we went to dinner and I elected to go to the Red Lobster and have some fish & crab. (Seeing Tom Hanks spear those fish and eat the crabs made me REALLY hungry for seafood.)

My poems have not enjoyed the luxury of a large reading. Consequently I have very little feedback on any of them. My short version, short stories, have appealed to the younger generation of hunters. About a year ago I got the following email:

hello. i am a member at aldeer.com and was checking out tndeer.com when i came across one of your short stories titled Scarce Creek Gobbler. i just chimed in to tell u how good of a piece that was. i havent read any outdoor related stories that comes close to that one. i am real impressed. how would i go about reading your other stories. i want to read them all!!!


I no longer post on tndeer because the forum has become abused to such extents that I would call it "flyblown".

What does "flyblown" mean?

I was fascinated to learn the following....

"The Perfect Storm" is a true account of the brave Gloucester men and women who fish for a living, and specifically the story of the crew from the doomed "Andrea Gail." The ship was lost at sea in the fall of 1991 during one of the greatest storms in modern history.
The families and friends of the men who were lost at sea aboard the "Andrea Gail" still live and work in Gloucester. Although the making of "The Perfect Storm" honors the spirit of these men, it also asked a community to live through, for a second time, a terrible tragedy.
Warner Brothers had commissioned a boat maker to outfit two fishing vessels in the exact likeness of the "Andrea Gail" and the "Hannah Boden" (the "Hannah Boden" eventually returned safely to harbor after the storm). The ships were kept under cover until the actual filming began out of respect for the community. Painful memories would undoubtedly surface for crew members' families and friends upon seeing a second "Andrea Gail" sail out of Gloucester harbor. Truth be told, seeing the unveiled "Andrea Gail" replica was like seeing a ghost.
The filming of the memorial service was itself haunting, with family members of the lost men actually seated in the church behind the stars playing them in the movie. The emotional day was at times poignant and harrowing, particularly when Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio delivered a poetic eulogy, backed by a 60-person choir singing the "Navy Hymn: Eternal Father." Peterson and Mastrantonio, who was required to cry something like 15 times in a row (first Peterson felt she wasn't crying enough; then she was crying too much), were walking a fine line, careful to respect the gathered mourners, but intent on getting the scene shot in one day. (The church wouldn't be available at any other time.)
www.newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/00 ... tstorm.htm

Mary-Elizabeth Mastrantonio
On her eulogy at the end of the film:
"We weren't replicating a memorial service, we were actually holding one. When you turn around and you look at all of these faces, and they're staring up, all 900 - I think my nervousness came from the fact that I felt unworthy. I shouldn't be up here, I am just an actor. I thought, One of you should all be up here, reading this, because I was speaking of them to them. And it was thick with emotion. Not sentiment, that's kind of too light a word. It was heavy with grief. It's something that never goes away."
http://www.countingdown.com/perfectstor ... duct10.htm

here is a portion of the eulogy from The Perfect Storm:
"May you rest easy long-liners, in fair winds and calm seas. For those of us left behind, the vast unmarked grave which is home for those lost at sea is of no consolation. It can't be visited. There is no headstone on which to rest a bunch of flowers. The only place we can re-visit them is in our hearts, or in our dreams. They say that swordboatmen suffer from a lack of dreams. That's what begets their courage. Well, we'll dream for you, [names them by their nicknames].
Sleep well. Good night."

There breaks in every Gloucester Harbor
A widowed woman's heart.
~Elizabeth Ward-Gloucester Harbor

Captain Billy Tyne: I always find the fish. Always!

Linda Greenlaw: Oh... now c'mon, look, I'm happy. I'm happy, I'm fit to do this. I just don't see the romance in it.
Captain Billy Tyne: But you got it, Captian Greenlaw, you do. Believe me, I see them come and go. The day I laid eyes on you I said to myself, "She's gonna be a good one." Can't be good unless you love it. The fog's just lifting. Throw off your bow line, throw off your stern. You head out the South Channel, past Rocky Neck, Ten Pound Island. Past Niles Pond, where I skated as a kid. Blow your airhorn and throw a wave to the lighthouse keeper's kid on Thatcher Island. The birds show up -- black backs, herring gulls, big dumb ducks. The sun hits ya, head North, open up to 12, steamin' now. The guys are busy, you're in charge. Ya know what? You're a goddam swordboat captain! Is there anything better in the world?

Linda Greenlaw: I saw your guys loading bait. You doing a turnaround?
Captain Billy Tyne: No rest for the weary.
Linda Greenlaw: There you go. Flaunting your work ethic.
Captain Billy Tyne: I don't have a work ethic. I just have work. ...If I'm going to catch up to you.

Bobby: So, what are you so happy about?
Captain Billy Tyne: You just caught me on a good night. I'm doing what I was made to do -- and I've got a feeling I'm going to do it even better this time.

Melissa Brown: This weather fax just came in. Edie, have a look at this.
Edie Bailey: We have got to head in now! Put in at Watch Hill!
Alexander McAnally III: In this stuff, harbor's too dangerous.
Melissa Brown: Dangerous?
Alexander McAnally III: Dash into shore, cut across shipping lanes...
Edie Bailey: This is a hurricane coming straight at us!
Melissa Brown: Let me reduce sails, Sandy, or even go back home.
Alexander McAnally III: This is my boat. We're gonna ride this thing out, not for fun, for safety. Do what I've always done: go with the flow.

Bobby Shatford: I got a woman who I can't stand to be two feet away from.
Captain Billy Tyne: Congratulations.
Bobby Shatford: Then again, I love to fish.
Captain Billy Tyne: Son, you've got a problem.

Irene: So what does "Bugsy" stand for, anyway?
Mike "Bugsy" Moran: Michael.
Irene: That's a beautiful name. Why don't you use it?
Mike "Bugsy" Moran: Because people know me as Bugsy.

Captain Billy Tyne: Bugs, how you making out?
Mike "Bugsy" Moran: I'm not. I don't know. Maybe I smell like fish.
Captain Billy Tyne: Maybe you need a new deodorant.
Mike "Bugsy" Moran: Maybe I need a new face.

Pardon me Dr. Luna, I meant to say fly blown.

http://www.tndeer.com/trophy_room.shtml (Type in Delta as a last name).

After I watched The Perfect Storm I realized that I had never eaten swordfish. And what should I do? I went back to the Red Lobster and ordered some swordfish. It is very dry but I enjoyed it. Anyone want to go to the Red Lobster for lunch?

choir singing the "Navy Hymn: Eternal Father


(Information from The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion
by LindaJo H. McKim, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, Ky. 1993)


The "Navy Hymn" is Eternal Father, Strong to Save. The original words were written as a poem in 1860 by William Whiting of Winchester, England, for a student who was about to sail for the United States. The melody, published in 1861, was composed by fellow Englishman, Rev. John Bacchus Dykes, an Episcopalian clergyman.


The hymn, found in most hymnals, is known as the "Navy hymn" because it is sung at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It is also sung on ships of the Royal Navy (U.K.) and has been translated into French.


Eternal Father was the favorite hymn of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and was sung at his funeral in Hyde Park, New York, in April 1945. It was also played by the Navy Band in 1963 as President John F. Kennedy's body was carried up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to lie in state. Roosevelt had served as Secretary of the Navy and Kennedy was a PT boat commander in World War II.


The original words are:


Verse 1: Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!


Verse 2: O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!


Verse 3: Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!


Verse 4: O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.


http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/que ... ernal.html

_________________
Regards,
Lou
I feel like a fugitive from th' law of averages.
— Bill Mauldin

Phantom, I really don't know what fly blown or flyblown means. I could look it up, but I thought it would be more interesting for you to tell me!

By the way, I've always found swordfish a little dry myself. Much prefer salmon, yellowfin tuna, flounder and catfish.

Fly blown is a term that I use to describe undesirable. (Roadkill) The term "fly blown" is specifically used to desribe a dead animal or carcass that has been infected my flies.

Ugh -- I had to ask. But thanks

Lou de Torres,
What a trip that you focussed in on the hymn. I first heard it watching the funeral of Kennedy.
My first cousin, John Houge, was one of the shipmates aboard the Scorpion, and I carry the words to that hymn in my billfold.
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s/scorpion1.htm

Speaking of self quotes; when I was 15 years old I made a statement that was quickly circulated within the concentric circles of my church, community and school. The statement traveled through the grapevines of little old ladies. It was also spoken by old men who sat on the benches in front of the local stores to whittle, spit or gossip. It was quoted or whispered at the reception of my high school graduation. Eventually it was quoted again at a reception for my college graduation. I guess it was also spoken at my wedding reception. (Who knows?)

In June of 1972 I began work as a field hand in the cabbage fields in Gibson County. I was paid $1.25 per hour to cut cabbage. The work was more subservient than I had anticipated. During the lunch break of my first day of work the plantation owner asked me, "how does farm work suit you?"

I said, "I used to say that I was never going to attend college but after today I am certain that I will go to college."

"There is nothing left to do here except sit around and fart."

--Phantom Delta, 1975
Environmental Careers Seminar
Brandon Springs Group Camp
Land Between the Lakes

Way back in the early spring of 75 Alice and I were selected by our high school guidance councellor to attend the seminar at Brandon Springs. You might say we were tickled pink. It was a chance to get off from home for a couple of days. It was also an opportunity to meet people who might steer us in the right direction. We spent half of a Friday and all day Saturday listening to folks come in and give us the song and dance about this that or the other. We enjoyed the food but by late Saturday there was nothing to do but sit in the dorms. There was rain falling and supper had been served early. All the ram rods had gone home and there were about 10 or 12 high school seniors remaining in camp. We weren't allowed to leave the camp unitl Sunday morning. There was no television or movies to watch. It was too wet to do anything outside. Some of the kids from Mckenzie had smuggled some vodka and tequila into the dorms. The boys were getting blitzed in the boys dorm and I don't know exactly what was going on the girls dorm. All in all, the experience was anti climactic dud.