My Small Boat

The cure for anything is salt water; sweat, tears, or the sea.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

Return to Sorrento (3rd class)
I must go down to the sea again,
To the lonely sea and the sky,
I left my vest and socks there,
I wonder if they’re dry ?

You know, many a man realizes late in life that if when he was a boy he had known what he knows now, instead of being what he is he might be what he won’t; but how few boys stop to think that if they knew what they don’t know instead of being what they […]

14 different ways to pronounce “ough”
Rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman John Gough strode through the streets of Loughborough; after falling into a slough on Coughlin road near the lough (dry due to drought), he coughed and hiccoughed, then checked his horse’s houghs and washed up in a trough.
1. awe: thought, bought, fought, brought, ought, sought, nought, […]

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.

The Sea Gypsy
I am fevered with the sunset,
I am fretful with the bay,
For the wander-thirst is on me
And my soul is in Cathay.
There ’s a schooner in the offing,
With her topsails shot with fire,
And my heart has gone aboard her
For the Islands of Desire.
I must forth again to-morrow!
With the sunset I must be
Hull down on […]

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Euclid
Old Euclid drew a circle
On a sand-beach long ago.
He bounded and enclosed it
With angles thus and so.
His set of solemn greybeards
Nodded and argued much
Of arc and circumference,
Diameter and such.
A silent child stood by them
From morning until noon
Because they drew such charming
Round pictures of the moon.

To know someone with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts unexpressed … that can make this life a garden.

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and, until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of his hand.