SECURE FOR SOME HAIL, SAIL SANS DELAY – a poem

SECURE FOR SOME HAIL, SAIL SANS DELAY

I have never yet failed in my failing when not
Trying to master the actions that wont
When warrant or custom or habit disclose
That I am inactive despite what I know,

Yet never has action without a good plan
Produced in my ventures an end in my hand
My going sans knowing has led me nowhere
Worth cost of my travels, or price of my dare,

If charting your course will assume all your time
You’ve none left for sailing, come reason or rhyme
Yet if you’ve no course and no harbor to plot
Who can then wonder you made it there not?

Some men are captains, and some take the wheel
Some work the rigging, and some craft the keel
All must cross waters deep, harsh, and dark
For that you can plan, thus less for the sharks,

But still will the storms unexpected arise
Some in the oceans and some in the skies
Look for good weather, but watch for the gales
Plan for safe passage, secure for some hail (hale, hell),

Good thoughts hurt nothing if the winds are all wrong
But rowing will turn you, and drive you along
Don’t tack at all angles with nary a care
For some lead to wrackage, and some to despair

Dead reckon assumptions wreck too many ships
Not preparing for action suits many a slip
Yet avoiding all battles by planning too much, and
Your prey is in dry-dock, a prize of the Dutch

I cannot in conscious tell you to do, without
Planning and training and thinking it through
But I can say to start just as soon as you’re fit
For the daring adventure is his who commits