"When you're lost in the Wild and you're scared as a child,
And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil it's according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and die.
But the Code of Man says: 'Fight all you can,'
And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, its easy to blow...
It's the hell-served-for-breakfast that's hard."
From Robert Service's poem, The Quitter, which is taken from a book I'm currently reading called A Voyage for Madmen, by Peter Nichols, about a race in 1968 to see who could sail around the world first; alone and without stopping. Nine men set sail and only one finishes in this epic tale of the utmost courage and deolute solitude.
4 comments:
That poem Quitter brought to mind "The Cremation of Sam McGee".
Just googled it - whoa! The Quitter and Sam Mcgee written by same Robert Service! I should have known, they both have his style.
Good to see you're still blogging away. Happy Holidays Goyo. Miss and Love. Meimei
"When you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Easter time, too, and gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through;
don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue. They got some hungry women there, they'll really make a mess out of you."
Dude, A Voyage For Madmen was a great book-- read it in '04. One of my favorite books of '06 was Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Check it out. --Nick
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