Jim Vick: Listen

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When I was a kid I remember hearing my parents talk about how much better life would be when their ship came in, but I never knew whether or not they really expected it to happen. Love, like luck, often arrives quite unexpectedly, and can be just as life changing. This is the story of when my own ship finally came in and set anchor in my harbor after a long series of rough voyages on that stormy sea of love. - JV

SHIP OF LOVE
Well I wasn't necessarily looking for love.
I was basically getting along.
I'd been living alone for a couple of years
And I was feeling pretty centered and strong.
I'd kept all signs of my loneliness
Locked safely deep inside.
Except for in moments of solitude,
I bore the pain in stride.
I'd finally finished up graduate school
and started on my new career
of perfecting the art of discreetly resisting
any woman who tried to get near.
I'd built up my defenses
Like a fortress awaiting a war.
Still bearing the scars of a love gone wrong,
I was sparing myself from more.

Through another stormy night
I'd drifted steadily from shore,
Without a ray of hope in sight of finding
love in my life once more.
I guess I'd have barely kept afloat
In that life raft I was in.
But I thought that I had missed the boat
until your ship of love came in.

I busied myself with work and play
I could always find somethinhg to do.
With my head full of things that I
Wanted to say but there was
No one to tell them to.
I'd given up on searching
For all my seeking had ended in vain,
either loving nobody
or loving nobody worth loving.
It's all the same.
The only true love that I?ve ever known
has come along unexpectedly,
and those from whom I haven't drifted away
have drifted away from me.
If these word are sounding bitter, my love, please remember all we've both been through.
You know even in my darkest hour,
I'd have lit up inside over you.

Through another stormy night
I'd drifted steadily from shore,
Without a ray of hope in sight of finding
love in my life once more.
I guess I'd have barely kept afloat
In that life raft I was in.
But I thought that I had missed the boat
until your ship of love came in.

Copyright 1995 Jim Vick