Seaman's Ditty by Gary Snyder (1985) in "Left out in the Rain" published North Point Press, 1986

I'm wondering where you are now
Married, or mad, or free:
Wherever you are you're likely glad,
But memory troubles me

We could've had us children
We could have had a home
But you thought not, and I thought not,
And these nine years we roam

Today I worked in the deep dark tanks,
And climbed out to watch the sea:
Gulls and salty waves pass by,
And mountains of Araby.

I've travelled the lonely oceans
And wandered the lonely towns,
I've learned a lot and lost a lot,
And proved the world was round

Now if we'd stayed together,
There's much we'd never've known
But deary books and weary lands
Weigh on me like a stone

(Indian Ocean)

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