Kendall Merriam: Ghost Museum, for Capt. Sharp
The blizzard is so bad
I can barely see
your House of Treasures
the plow is stuck
in the road
a dangerous situation
other trucks coming through
fast
is there room
for this magnanimous, kind act
I hope this
that you are safe and warm
and know how difficult
it would be to bend sails
ice laden, driven snow
wind gale strength
I walked, struggled
fell in the drifts
until a strong, young,
Navy woman lifted me
Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland. He has a history degree from Gordon College and pursued graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze (Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death.
On April 29, 2010, Merriam was appointed Rockland's naugural Poet Laureate, an honor from his hometown that Merriam cherishes.
I could only pay her
with six insignificant poems
and a house in Eastport, Maine
the storm abates, inclines
now I can see the tower lights
of the fishing boat
of the new Snow family’s Shipyard
just beyond your museum
will it last forever
preserved as a Historic Site
for the fog—bound Universe
Jan. 27, 2015
Kendall Merriam lives in Rockland.
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