ENCOUNTER IN VAILIMA

To Robert Louis Stevenson(1850-1894)

Setting sail away from

approaching death to life

among the sun-drenched ocean's

scattered islands in its blue

is still - as much as it is

choosing life over death,

hope over despair in

light of knowledge that cautions;

is still setting forth

for an encounter in Samarra.

Your death has always,

since the seas first covered

the cooling planet,

waited you there, patiently,

through the immeasurable aeons.

30.07.2019