33 Stranded

 <Chorus>

Shantyman: Our ship broke apart near the Chatum bar

Crew: Here we are on the Pendleton

Shantyman: 33 stranded in this nor’easter

Crew: She split in half, we’re stranded

Shantyman: Will this storm be the one that finally sank her?

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: Will we perish ‘neath the weight of this oil tanker?

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

Shantyman: We hear another tanker is also split asunder

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: Will we all be saved or will our souls be left to wander?

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

<Chorus>

Shantyman: The pumps are working to keep us all alive

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: But will the waters rising lead to our demise?

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

Shantyman: Let’s fix the rudder our spirits to renew

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: To live past February in the year 52

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

<Chorus>

Shantyman: The waves throw us ‘round like a cauldron in boil

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: Let’s make for the bar, we’ve spilled our oil

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

Shantyman: Hallelujah, we’ve run aground

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: But on this stormy night will we e’er be found?

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

<Chorus>

Shantyman: By the grace of God I see a searchlight shine

Crew: Hey! Ho! Will we die below?

Shantyman: It’s a tiny lifeboat, but it’s just in time

Crew: Dear God don’t leave us stranded!

Shantyman: Tell me who do we owe our great debt to?

Crew: Hey! Ho! We didn’t die below!

Shantyman: Saved by a four-man Coast Guard crew

Crew: God didn’t leave us stranded!

Crew: Hey! Ho! We didn’t die below!

Shantyman: Saved by a four-man Coast Guard crew

Crew: God didn’t leave us stranded!

All: God didn’t leave us stranded!

All: God didn’t leave us stranded!

All: Hooray!

By Royce Waxenfelter

12/7/20

Note: Based on the true story of the SS Pendleton off the coast of Cape Cod on February 18, 1952. The tanker split apart and on the half that didn’t abruptly sink, 33 men remained. The perilous trek to save those 33 men is commonly known as the most dangerous rescue in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard. 32 of 33 were saved. Watch the Disney Movie ‘The Finest Hours’ for reference.

The poem is written as a traditional sea shanty, with the Shantyman calling out a verse and the crew responding. Shanty's helped the sailing crews stay in time together as they pulled ropes, hoisted sails, and loaded cargo.

Songs of my youth

There will come a day

When my memory wanders

Will I still remember the songs

I sang with my brothers when we were still young?

When I’m old and gray

And my days are numbered

I will still remember the songs

I sang with my brothers when were so young

The sounds, a bridge

The voices, a path

Each note, a crystalline vision

Opening my memory to the time I first heard

The songs of my youth

When I am in dismay

When life’s torn asunder

The memories deliver those songs

I sang with my brothers when we were so young

When I feel the world’s weight

And I feel outnumbered

I push through until dawn

By singing like I’m with my brothers when we were still young

The sounds, a bridge

The voices, a path

Each note, a crystalline vision

Opening my memory to the time I first heard

The songs of my youth

Let’s sing the anthems of that day

Bring songs back like plunder

Become the giver of songs

You sang with others when you were still young

Let’s share while we may

This amazing wonder

Let’s all remember the songs

We sang with friends when were so young

The sounds, a bridge

The voices, a path

Each note, a crystalline vision

Opening my memory to the time I first heard

The songs of my youth

By Royce Waxenfelter

12/23/20

Spoiler at Noonday

There I was a-worshipping my gods

When Jeremiah’s word came through the door

Who is he to throw God’s word around like clods?

And why is he so sullen and demure?

 

How can a man from Judah be pinned down to just one god?

A mind is meant to wander, to spiritually poke and prod

The king himself encourages us to worship Baal

If I follow each and every god, however can I fail?

 

Tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la

We’re perfectly fine with idolatryism

 

I take advice from any foriegn man

Send negativity from whence it came

I worship any god or other deity at hand

A god’s a god by any other name

 

I’ve a god for happiness, I’ve got a god for health

And look here in my pocket, a shiny god for wealth

Some are made of iron, some are made of wood

Here’s one made by the blacksmith right here in my neighborhood

 

Tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la

We’re perfectly fine with idolatryism

Yet perhaps idolatry has gotten out of hand

Do I require an object to give me purpose?

What’s to stop me from just being my own man?

And who's to say I do or don’t deserve this?

 

But look at King Manasseh, the envy of us all 

He sacrifices children, in case you don’t recall

And uses divination to reap harvests in the fall

Yet Jeremiah warns it will be sorrowful for all

 

Tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la

We’re perfectly fine with idolatryism

 

Jeremiah’s says his God will send a spoiler at noonday

To those of us who reject his one true God

We’ll all be held as captives unless we all obey

In this time of peace it all sounds rather odd

 

If he’d look around he’d see all our enemies are gone

Be he is just a prophet whose predictions have been wrong

I for one am sleeping in, I won’t be up at dawn

It will take a while for captors to come all the way from Babylon

 

Tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la

We’re perfectly fine with idolatryism

 

I hope you know this song is written tongue in cheek

A leaky faucet dripping thick with irony

Eternal truth isn’t just made up by you or me

History proves Jeremiah made the correct choice of deity.

 

Like Jeremiah we can all trust in the God of Israel

Instead of trusting man-made gods that we can buy or sell

He speaks to us loud and clear like the ringing of a bell

In the Bible you can learn the way, I urge you and compel

To discard the ways of defiance of God, your tendency to rebel

He is a good God and wants nothing more than to save your soul from Hell

 

Tra-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la

It’s time to let go of idolatryism

 

By Royce Waxenfelter

12/4/20

 

Note: Inspired by the “spoiler at noonday” warning in Jeremiah 15:8. Sing this to the tune of Johnny Comes Marching Home or Billy Bragg’s The Marching Song of the Covert Battalion

Shanty of the Dry, Dry Land

I went to sea one misty morn

And puked my guts out overboard

Seafarin’ life just ain’t for me,

Get me off’a this gol’ darn sea!

 

Now the only songs I sing 

Are ones about farmin’ and sowin’ seed

You can take the rollin’ deep sea life

I’ll take the arms of my dear, sweet wife

 

For I ain’t been sailin’ since that fateful day

And I ain’t goin’ again, no matter the pay

Tease me all you like ‘bout being a man

I’ll sing this shanty on the dry, dry land

 

Hey! Ho! To the market I go

To buy my fish and purchase my roe

Dry! Land! Is the life for me

When I die you can throw me in the deep blue sea

 

We both have regrets for what we’ve said

We both love our dear ol’ mum and dad

Barnacles, tentacles, beasts of the sea

Here is the difference ‘tween you and me

 

You were born with the wind in your hair

A bucket for swabbin’ in the salty air

But I was born on the dry, dry land

Seeds in my pocket and a plow in me hand

 

You run the danger of the pirate hoard

Or you may get swept overboard

Politicians and lawyers are the sharks I fear

And I sell my corn for a buck an ear

 

Hey! Ho! To the market I go

To buy my fish and purchase my roe

Dry! Land! Is the life for me

When I die you can throw me in the deep blue sea

 

Thar she blows! I’ll never cry out

Never search the horizon for a blowhole spout

I won’t batten down hatches or swab the poop deck

Go deep sea divin’ in an old shipwreck

I won’t be navigatin’ by the stars alone

‘Nor piercin’ my nose with a wet whale bone

I won’t climb the crows nest to spot the shore

Or get stung by a Portuguese man o’ war

 

Won’t tell no stories of the great blue whale

Never buried any treasure, or hoisted a sail

Haven’t met a mermaid, smuggled contraband

‘Cause I live my life on the dry, dry land

 

Hey! Ho! To the market I go

To buy my fish and purchase my roe

Dry! Land! Is the life for me

When I die you can throw me in the deep blue sea

 

Oy!

 

By Royce Waxenfelter

12/2/20