All posts by Jim

To Maureen: On Our Painting i Bought in Hong Kong

A Pocket of Resistance

you sleep in the next room;
i, tired from weekend tasks,
start to bed but stop
to look at Lisi Tang’s painting
striking me as a “lonely” painting;
a beautiful tribute
to the loneliness of
the vast and omnipotent sea
yet
there are two gulls,
beautiful in their flight together,
graceful, in syncopation,
juxtaposed against the vastness of the sea;
i see us, the gulls,
flying into the mist of the morning sea
aware of its vastness, its cruelty, its beauty,
flying toward infinity together:
a significant moment:
the two of us
flying above the sea of time.

Ode to RPW

A Pocket of Resistance

Dear Mister Warren,

i am reading you again,
more thoughtful reading perhaps
buffered by the passage of Time:
your time, my time,
perhaps because
we come from near the kindred borders
of Kentucky and Tennessee
with limestone, pockmarked hills
of cedar, pine, oak, poplar, dogwood
and, of course, hickory;

lives reared by the hills,
farm gardens, several dairy cows
in the pasture next to the barn,
hogs in the muddy slop of the sty,
all of which did not know Time,
your time, my time
until it was gone.

The mockingbird trills another song
as the stars mock Time
but not in golden California
or the snow blotted woods of Connecticut:
did i write of stars mocking Time
or did i repeat what you said?

Does it matter with Time?

i am more often now older than Time,
antique words past Time,
lost
far from those rolling, curving rivers
of Water and Time
in the hills and valleys of the Shawnee
when deer and bear roamed the woods;
even then, the mockingbird
trilled its borrowed music
in our ear.

Time is forever and never
as it was then,
as it is now;
we will have our time with us
for we are in Time,
always and forever.

i have you to thank
for my thoughts of Time;
at least, it makes me gracious,
conscious of how Time, us
fit together.

A Tale of the Sea and Me – A Joke

Sea Stories

This is not an actual sea story, or at least i hope not, but it is one of my favorite Navy jokes.

There once was a young ensign fresh from his commissioning at the Naval Academy. He reported to his first ship and on his first turn to have the conn, every one, especially the CO, was surprised at this ship handling skills. He seem to be able to put his ship wherever he wanted and could stop it on a dime, one of the more difficult skills of ship handling.

Several junior officers had noticed him in his stateroom opening the top drawer of his storage locker and looking intently at something in the drawer. He then went to the bridge and performed his magic.

These skills continued and he was quickly promoted throughout his career. Crew and officers alike would stop to watch him handle his ship. More of them noticed before going to the bridge, he would go to his stateroom, open the top drawer of his locker and look at something intently.

He was early promoted a number of times, and even after he made flag, CO’s would ask him to display his ship handling skills. He would politely comply and again demonstrate his incredible skills. The steward who attended to the admiral’s cabin also noted the admiral would return to his cabin open the top drawer of his dresser and stare intently at something before going to the bridge.

Finally, the admiral retired. As soon as he left his flagship, as many officers as possible led by the captain rushed to the flag cabin, ran to the dresser and opened the top drawer. There was a a 3×5 white card, the only thing in the drawer. Hand written on the card in large letters were the words:

PORT LEFT ——- STARBOARD RIGHT

A Tale of the Sea and Me – Perhaps the Best Ever Sea Story

Sea Stories

This is not part of my tale. This was told to me by three Naval Officers who were at the Naval Destroyer School in 1973, attending the six-month Department Head Course in Newport, Rhode Island. i hopefully have made the ship and the characters in this story anonymous. i also hope that land lubbers who read this understand enough about Navy ships at sea (at least back then) to understand the outlandish bravado in the story.

At one point of Naval history, there were commanding officers who shied away from involvement in the operation of the engineering plant. They left that solely to the engineer. i was the Chief Engineer or CHENG on a ship with such a CO after this story occurred.

On this particular Atlantic Navy destroyer in the Atlantic, the captain was of that makeup. His CHENG ran a great engineering operation. Even though he was somewhat of a crazy guy, the captain would laugh at his antics and let him run his department without interference.

This ship was independently steaming in the Navy’s Atlantic Operation Areas off of Newport, Rhode Island. CHENG had the mid-watch (0000-0400) as the Officer of the Deck (OOD). After about two hours, he was a little bored and decided to do something a bit different.

First, he switched steering control to after steering. Then, he ordered the bridge watch to the flying bridge, one deck above the pilot house. He directed the lookouts on the port and starboard bridge wings also to move to the flying bridge. He checked the bridge out and ensured it was empty.

It was 0200. The captain was sleeping in his sea cabin, which was just aft of the pilot house/bridge on the starboard side. CHENG, the OOD, ordered the Boatswain Mate of the Watch (BMOW) to make an announcement over the 1MC (the ship’s announcing system) and immediately return to the flying bridge.

The BMOW said “Aye, aye, sir,” and knowing boatswainmates, i’m betting he was loving it.

He descended to the 1MC speaker, piped “attention” on his boatswain’s pipe, announced. “Captain to the bridge,” in an excited voice and immediately climbed the ladder to the fourth deck afterwards.

For those who don’t know, such an announcement connotes an emergency situation when the captain is immediately required to handle an impending disaster. Normally, during the evening watches when the captain is in his sea cabin, the OOD would communicate with him via a sound tube — and that device created some sea stories of its own.

So, calling the captain to the bridge at 0200 on the 1MC is only when peril is upon the ship, which it wasn’t in this situation. But the captain didn’t know that. So he jumps from his rack, perhaps jumped into his trousers, but more likely just rushed through his door to the bridge in his skivvies.

He burst onto the bridge and found…Nothing. No one was there.

i am amazed that 1) he didn’t have a heart attack, and 2) when he found out the joke was on him, he did not fire, or kill his CHENG.

The tellers of this tale swore the captain laughed and did not punish the CHENG/OOD.

To this day, i keep trying to envision a destroyer captain bursting on the bridge to handle some dire emergency to find his bridge empty.