Thursday, February 15, 2007

Horse Latitudes.

Just an absolutely brilliant poem:
Horse Latitudes

When the still sea conspires an armor
And her sullen and aborted
Currents breed tiny monsters
True sailing is dead
Awkward instant
And the first animal is jettisoned
Legs furiously pumping
Their stiff green gallop
And heads bob up
Poise
Delicate
Pause
Consent
In mute nostril agony
Carefully refined
And sealed over

Jim Morrison (The Doors, album Strange Days).
P.S. Horse latitudes are calm waters between 30° and 35° latitude. The story goes that stranded ships traveling to the New World would jettison horses overboard to save water.

4 comments:

Samira said...

I'm speechless. I knew of the horse latitudes, but not of the song/poem, and I agree with your description of it... Thanks for sharing it.

Igor said...

That's impressive that you knew about "horse latitudes". I found out because of that poem...

Samira said...

Well, I'm from the "New World", remember? ;)

Igor said...

It doesn't make it less impressive ;-).