The Romance of it all...

=== originally published June 2014 ===

hear what follows in an ever thickening brogue, the speaker a smaller man, gnarled and bent, calloused, gray and grizzled with piercing blue eyes and a salt air a’ the sea about him, a man who wandered the world under sail a century and more before any of us were born

Now, most folks say romance and they be thinkin’ of a man and a woman, some affair a’ the flesh becomin’ an affair a’ love, and aye, there be romance there, there is, the romance of that test and temperin’ a’ love what leaves two hearts honed a keen edge fit to set the future a fair green field with a crop on the land, and aye, there’s a romance there, there is. But there be romance in other things as well, for romance is life on the very edge a’ livin' when ye' can't help but know life is a worth the livin’... them times when livin’ on beyond is no sure thing... I’ve known a few of those times.  Times, times come and times go and these times, these doldrum times are so slow so give me no more rum, nay, give me back the witch, bring her to me as she was in the glory of her youth, show her to me as she were on that day when the sun beat brilliant on a blue green sea a’ runnin’ high and shadow of her sails painted the deck like veils floatin’ across your lovers back, bring her to me as she were that day when the sky behind was black as pitch and the wind, ah, the wind was nigh on a full gale thirty, forty knots just off the stern and she was a runnin’ down the wind a runnin’ from the devil's own storm a boilin’ up chasin’ from behind... I was there, I was and there were no man jack aboard didn’t know the Cap’n was a pushin her, pushin her so hard, to hard, heart breakin' hard, him a’ standin’ there like a statue by the mizzen mast with his hand on her, standin’ there a makin’ love with the witch while the white foam was a flyin’ over the bow... half the hour, an hour, hour after hour in the riggin’ standin’ ready and listenin’ to her cryin' with the strain, feelin’ her beat her breast again’ the sea and every time the sea give way feelin’ her shake until all aboard knew ‘twas nothin’ but the love between ‘em holdin’ her spar to mast, keel to rib... aye, and when the storm fell behind, fell and faded and the wind become a breeze it were the climax of her ecstasy we all felt in the riggin' when the Cap’n himself fell to his knees and leaned down to the very deck to kiss his witch... that were a day to remember I tell you, for that?  That were a day of romance it was, deep romance... there be so few of those days now.

I wish I'd painted this one, but I didn't... it belongs to some other artist far better than I to whom I offer my thanks for the beauty of his work... CDM

Every now and then my imagination just takes the bit in its’ teeth and runs with me.  I usually don’t contest it very much, unless I’m involved in something where I have to keep focus on the real.  Most of the time I just let it run and think around the outer edges even if I have no earthly idea what triggered the whole episode.  Today the word “romance” took center stage.  Why?  No clue, not really.  There’s the movie “Romancing the Stone” and there’s thousands of “romance” novels, and none of those have crossed my thought in a long, long time.  But for some reason it seemed a good word to wander in since somehow I don’t think very many people realize just what romance really is..