from Articles of War, Section II
By John Barr
The coastline edges to the edge of our chart.
We move on a central, generous blue.
Wind high, ocean plain smack
tonnage our bow plows through,
the boiling salt excitement of our wake,
gone in minutes,
then birds on our bobbing crates
a thousand miles from land.
To pass the time
I try to teach our bosun mate
"Sailing to Byzantium."
Good-natured, he laughs and laughs.
It is by no means enough that an officer o
f the Navy should be a capable mariner. H
e must be that, of course, but also a grea
t deal more. He should be the soul of tac
t, patience, justice, firmness and charity
. No meritorious act of a subordinate sho
uld escape without its reward, even if the
reward is only a word of approval. Conver
sely, he should not be blind to a single f
ault in any subordinate though, at the sam
e time, he should be quick and unfailing t
o distinguish error from malice, thoughtle
ssness from incompetency, and well meant s
hortcoming from heedless or stupid blunder.
Copyright Credit: John Barr, "from Articles of War, Section II" from The Hundred Fathom Curve: New & Collected Poems. Copyright © 2011 by John Barr. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press.
Source: The Hundred Fathom Curve: New & Collected Poems (Red Hen Press, 2011)