Poetry in Motion: The schooners of W. Starling Burgess

摘要

The Southern California sun is baking salt spray to a crusty film on my sunglasses. I'm down on my knees in the scuppers, soaked in a torrent of seawater rushing over the leeward rail, cranking on a winch to sheet in an immense genoa. This, I think, is possibly a form of madness, considering I'm 70 years old and my ride, the W. Starling Burgess-designed racing schooner ROSE OF SHARON, is on the cusp of 90. It's as if something's causing my lizard brain to take over, urging me to throw all caution to the wind. It's really hard to muster the common sense that says I need to be throttling down both my body and this boat.