(Ship to Shore, Observations and Thoughts of a Seafaring Passenger-Poet)
By Brian Michael Barbeito
That’s what they say; that the cruise ships are self-contained ‘cities at sea,’ and I suppose they are. In looking at their history, it does seem they have gotten bigger and bigger. Certainly they are something to look at and be on.
On the one that was fourteen stories tall, I looked all around. Multiple pools and hot tubs, the grand eating area and several other restaurants. Food from around the world,- from the healthy and light to the extravagant and decadent.
The populace of this moving city might be more interested in just touching base at beaches than exploring other cultures beyond a surface level. And as for vessels, the nautical idea, the engineering and architecture of such grand boats,-I don’t get the impression that the visitors are overly interested in such. Yet, no harm, and it’s a free world that way. Nice enough to explore marketplaces and vistas and to share some time with friends and/or family.
Several tropical islands were visited, and though it rained at moments, the weather in those parts of the world changes quickly and the ensuing sun would more than often than not announce itself and do so full of prowess and magnificence. See if you can in your mind’s eye the bright beaches, the verdant leaves of the southern hemisphere’s flora, and even the interesting textured clouds before the storms or the clear turquoise water near white fine-grain sand afterwards.
At night I’d admire the city at sea again. I’d watch the nocturnal world from the railings or the room and wonder where the birds of the day had gone, had retired to? Many seemed to follow the ship and I suppose they did it to gain scraps of food from somewhere. An interesting sight they made, waving wings and also gliding through the breezy air with an island behind in the distance or else nothing at all save for the humongous salted and sanguine day-sea itself.
What’s this?- a watch store, a cologne store, an art store. Others also. And what’s more, the friendly workers and patrons, from all over the earth, adding to the colourful and richly varied experience. Go and go it went, and at times another ship, a different moving city on eaters,-could be seen outside illuminated by electric lights across the ocean…
The ocean mystery, to think as I did, that it was vast as the eye could see and even vaster yet, containing mysteries perhaps beyond the imagination. What a fine and memorable feat of engineering, that city atop the sea, moving, being, exploring, all the while.
Brian Michael Barbeito is a Canadian poet, writer, and photographer. The Book of Love and Mourning, a third collection of prose poems and landscape photography, is forthcoming in the autumn of 2025.