Whistling in the Dark

By G. Henry Stege

G. Henry Steges dedication to sailing was a natural development. Raised on the
Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound, he followed a career in international
marketing while sailing a series of boats from dinghies to several larger craft:a family
cruiser named Starduster, then a successful one-ton ocean racing yacht named
Stegosaurus, and finally a fifty-foot cutter named Stegosaurus II.
After earning his Coast Guard Captains license and PADI Divemaster certification,
he and his wife teamed up to operate Stegosaurus II as a charter yacht. Over a
twelve year period they sailed more than 22,000 ocean miles commuting between
Connecticut and the Virgin Islands, and approximately 4,000 miles running charters
through the Virgins and various Windward Islands of the Caribbean..
His experiences formed the basis for two volumes of verse: Whistling in the Dark
and Singing in the Sun, each of about 145 poems. They earned him the selfappointed
title of Underwater Poet.
Ashore following the sale of Stegosaurus II, he
extrapolated his sailing life into two novels: Wings
of Morning and Hurry Sunrise, following an
earlier work, unrelated to the ocean, titled Season
of the Fireflies.
Sadly, Stegosaurus II was sunk by her new
owner 200 miles south of Haiti during a singlehanded
winter passage from Florida to Aruba.
He survived. The boat did not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781493180530

G. Henry Stege

George Henry Stege’s dedication to sailing was a natural development. Raised on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound, he followed a career in international marketing while sailing a series of boats from dinghies to several larger craft: a family cruiser named Starduster, then a successful one-ton ocean racing yacht named Stegosaurus, and finally a fifty-foot cutter named Stegosaurus II. After earning his Coast Guard Captain’s license and PADI Divemaster certification, he and his wife teamed up to operate Stegosaurus II as a charter yacht. Over a twelve year period, they sailed more than 22,000 ocean miles commuting between Connecticut and the Virgin Islands, and approximately 4,000 miles running charters through the Virgins and various Windward Islands of the Caribbean. His experiences formed the basis for two volumes of verse: Whistling in the Dark and Singing in the Sun, each of about 125 poems. They earned him the self-appointed title of Underwater Poet. Ashore, following the sale of Stegosaurus II, he extrapolated his sailing life into two novels: Wings of Morning and Hurry Sunrise, following an earlier work, unrelated to the ocean, titled Season of the Fireflies. Sadly, Stegosaurus II was sunk by her new owner 200 miles south of Haiti during a single-handed winter passage from Florida to Aruba. He survived. The boat did not.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by G. Henry Stege.

Graphics by Julia Droste Stege

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014903992

ISBN:      Softcover         978-1-4931-8052-3

                eBook              978-1-4931-8053-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 02/20/2015

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Contents

NOTE IN A BOTTLE

AN UN-NECESSARY SONNET

PASSAGES

Ship’s lights and stars join

Your April beauty taunts me through October’s veil.

I have been shot by that delinquent boy:

Words of love do not apply to him:

CARIBBEAN PHANTOM

In our love’s mortal ashes

A MOST MODEST PROPOSAL

HURRICANE

TIMING

When our human spirit

Our language lies between my palms:

CRI DE COEUR

TO A FRIEND ON HIS RECOVERY

At dawn a half day out of Guadeloupe

WRECK

FAMILY LOSS

DREAM

Why do I seek what was never mine

With current discords echoing in your mind

Before this long mirror see your beauty

I lust for your loveliness

ON CHARTER

FATHER’S REGRET

My fancies prepubescent

REMISSION

A FATHER’S TOAST

POSEIDON

OCEAN PASSAGE

Dark wings circling below the sun

AFTERMATH

EAST OF ORION

I can recall when I was still a child

CYCLIST

Sadness in my dream awakens me heart sore

NO FEAR OF VERSIFYING

IN RECOLLECTION OF A MID-OCEAN CALL TO

OUR FRIEND AND WEATHER MAVEN BOB RICE

In small hours before this dawn, shadows stir

MOTHER

At Christmas grizzled parents oft resemble

In you I find enthralling trinity:

Below a winter moon two hundred left boots raise

A COCKTAIL QUERY

Our heat cooled through motherhood

Why sing sad melodies?

In postprandial lassitude tonight

Speeding lines stylishly end stopped

Red balls remind me

I speak to a youth I never knew…

Why are you standing in chill flakes of snow

Caution’s shy child is a lonely maid

Had we been granted time enough

It is not refusal by itself he fears

Because I sang to you a melody

Beautiful women are another humankind

Someone asked if you were real

In politics we find some candidates

LINES TO A LADY, WHILE SHE WAS

ONLY VOICE ON THE TELEPHONE

NIECES

Our first greeting carried seeds of our farewell

Give fates no chance to weave

HURRY SUNRISE

MEMORIAM: PEGGY ST JOHN

The sun which burned so bright at noon

FROM ALERNON

Though I wrote words to you, Lovely J

Would that I could bind these words

Warm words of morning welcome I once spoke

CARIBBEAN HONEYMOONERS

ISLES DES SAINTES

Of what use beauty that I cannot share?

I dreamed I heard her crying in the night

Be gentle with me now

He spoke to Cupid and to Psyche

ELEGY

SUICIDE

No more songs.

I am raging to burst free of time

DIVERS

Amidst shards of my life tonight

NAVIGATOR

Dear /Frstnm, how you glow behind my eyes

There is a squeeze of loneliness

Palm fronds clattered by tradewinds

I love you now, she murmured as he slept:

SHE

Sea spray like shattered glass

Red flare of dawn awakens us

Your touch of now

Four hours, our pilot says to us:

OBSCENE CALLER

FAMILY CHRISTMAS

Young lovers explore

Finished with silent mourning

Your loving taunts me from another time

DEPARTURE

How can I miss you when you haven’t gone?

MANHATTAN PRINCESS

Where dwell our promises of yesterday?

TO MY CREW, ON OUR DEPARTURE

Laughing gulls despoil my mood

There is a silken memory where we touched.

SKIPPER’S MATE

Destruction of memories

We cannot comprehend stupidity of fish:

CAPTAIN’S ISLAND

There are still years for love

You haunt my presence in this starlit night

Too many lines are written to our past

Must we pursue new loves that flee us

Is this still love I feel

If we are to say farewell

PIANO CONCERTO 21

SUMMER TIME

At nineteen north and something west

SUMMER

Before remembered redwood, glass

A world is behind me, younger than I am

I am an angry man, bewildered

SNOWBOUND

AIRBORNE

At anchor in Anguilla’s bay

LOST BOY

REUNION

There is a purpose to my loss

Why do I ache for you?

QUERY

RETURN

OPERATORS STANDING BY

PRAYER

TRAIN

DECISION

WORD

My love was once lovelier than now

COMMUTER

As lights dim

I Iive in a field of memories

TO FRA STEVE

For Two Sisters

NOTE IN A BOTTLE

Amidst this wind and ocean’s roll

Alone with friends of yesteryear

In silence I send my thoughts to them

While silence holds their reply.

So I toss these lines in fragile hope

Like notes in a bottle now cast in waves

As I whistle