The Dark Humor of Life

This poem speaks for itself - for the experience and all the emotions of wonder, frustration, anger, and simultaneous disappointment and hope.

Ships That Pass in the Night

By: Paul Laurence Dunbar

 Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;

   I look far out into the pregnant night,

Where I can hear a solemn booming gun

   And catch the gleaming of a random light,

That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.

My tearful eyes my soul’s deep hurt are glassing;

   For I would hail and check that ship of ships.

I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,

   My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,

And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.

O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,

   O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!

Is there no hope for me? Is there no way

   That I may sight and check that speeding bark

Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing?