2 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 2 hours ago by RiverNotch.)
Navigators
The Mansa's ambition to find what long ago
Plato envisioned, what Erikson later found,
and what even later Columbus would despoil,
led him to gather Mali's nascent wealth
and purchase a fleet of ships, recruiting men
from all around the coast to be their crew.
At first, the winds blew straightly and steadily west
but soon each day the sun climbed up the sky
lower and lower, Polaris drew nearer and nearer,
until they feared that they were trapped in a gyre
soon to restore them far too early home.
They were about to try and change their tack
when from the prow of their foremost a shout
rang even to the aftmost of the file:
"Land ho!" The sailors, at their captains' nod,
scrambled to skirt around the sight and find
safe harbor for their barks, only they spied
along a line of sand between the sea
and endless laurel forests familiar signs:
either from native stone or wood carved out
stood haloed crosses. To these Blessed Isles
they had been bested by some Irish jack.
The Mansa's ambition to find what long ago
Plato envisioned, what Erikson later found,
and what even later Columbus would despoil,
led him to gather Mali's nascent wealth
and purchase a fleet of ships, recruiting men
from all around the coast to be their crew.
At first, the winds blew straightly and steadily west
but soon each day the sun climbed up the sky
lower and lower, Polaris drew nearer and nearer,
until they feared that they were trapped in a gyre
soon to restore them far too early home.
They were about to try and change their tack
when from the prow of their foremost a shout
rang even to the aftmost of the file:
"Land ho!" The sailors, at their captains' nod,
scrambled to skirt around the sight and find
safe harbor for their barks, only they spied
along a line of sand between the sea
and endless laurel forests familiar signs:
either from native stone or wood carved out
stood haloed crosses. To these Blessed Isles
they had been bested by some Irish jack.