Prologue to The Commodore's Journey

I have written a series of stories in ballad form that I have called the Peter the Pirate stories. I have been writing them for many years, long before Johnny Dep hit the scene. Five of these stories are short stories in ballad form, but one is becoming an epic poem called Peter the Pirate: The Commodore’s Journey. I thought I would share the prologue with you all. I should let you know that I have studied Virgil’s Aeneid a bit and couldn’t help but echo his prologue. Any one out there who had to memorize “Arma virumque cano…” will smile at the reference or groan with the horrible memory, but I loved the Aeneid and I love this most ancient means of story telling: the epic poem. Long before writing, there was poetry and story. Whoever first uttered the epic of Gilgamesh, or the book of Job long ago vanished into dust; and their name, once uttered to the winds is now long gone and blown away, but the stories and poems that sprung from their minds are still carried on the winds of time and haunt us even now. They are my teachers, these old ghosts, and they are still my inspiration.

The prologue
Peter the Pirate:Commodore’s Journey


I will sing a sea shanty
About the Mora May
And one who sailed that noble ship
To lands so far away.

And may the muses of the sea
Help me tell my tale,
Of how this pirate lost his ship
And men and mast and sail!

How he endured the mist maid’s wrath
And came to distant shores
And saved his men as best he could
In spite of wounds and sores.

And help me find the words to sing
Just why he went away.
‘Twas not for gold, nor glory gained
That he set sail that day.

‘Twas something deep inside of him
That called him out to sea—
A voice that few men dare to hear
Though it would set them free.

And if it cost him everything,
To follow that strange voice—
His men, his ship, his gold, his life
Then that would be his choice.