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“ Men of The Sea ”
– obdurate beings –
On steel hull ships
In days of old,
Sail hardened men
The story told,
Of rusty hearts
And tempers short,
Whose tired grunts
Would find exhort,
Spoke fitful streams
Of words bone thin…
With guarded eyes
And gnarled limbs,
They navigate
The lonely seas,
From dust to dawn
To burn or freeze,
Despite their brawn
Will find to cower,
As Lucifer spawns
Upon their superstitions…
In life replete
With boding myths,
And nightly demons
Who so disrupt,
The tattered dreams
Said heard compose,
The damning screams
Of obdurate beings,
That be men of the sea!
© Jean-Jacques Fournier
written in Vence, Fr
. January 20, 2002
Painting, Brager, by Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand
Poetry on a canapé 
One of my favourites, Jean-Jacques!!
As is one of mine, Rebecca… which for me brings back memories of near every port I ever saw and there were many, most of which happened after my seaman days. For some reason, the port of Balboa the Panama side of the Panama is the one I recall no matter what port I happen to be in or near…
I wasn’t expecting the poem to turn towards the demons of the deep, but it fits! You were a sailor?
Demons of the deep and shallows, depending on the why and what brought one to a life on the sea. That being adventure, commercial as in cruses, merchant navy or military navy.
Yes I was a sailor, where I met some of the likes of obdurate beings I speak of in the poem.
A good life experience, of which I will forever be grateful, more so due to having lost my father at a very young age.