Shipwreck Story Contest
Rachel Dix reads The Storm
Rachel Dix Reads The Storm from Underwater New York on Vimeo.
Contest-winner Rachel Dix drove up to NYC from Virgina to read her winning entry, The Storm, at Underwater New York Free Music Friday at the American Folk Art Museum.
Read The Storm, and see the Thomas Chambers painting that inspired it, here.
Watch other videos from that evening of shipwreck-themed performances here.
The Storm by Rachel Dix
- Threatening Sky, Bay of New York
Thomas Chambers, Threatening Sky, Bay of New York, c. 1835-50, Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches (46 x 61.6 cm), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 365-2008-5, Photo courtesy: Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
*
A long and frigid plight across
A dark and angry sea
The Captain looked out from the bough
“A mighty storm,” said he
“A mighty storm to shake these men
A storm the sea must free.”
He placed his hands along the rail,
“A mighty storm,” said he.
*
The lookout was uneasy
For he could not find the shore
And with a deep conviction cried
“We have no place to moor!”
The men all murmured hushedly
What God forsake them for,
Though they received no answer but
The thunder’s distant roar.
*
A livid wind scaled the deck
And set the sails to rise
It bit the men with savage teeth
And stung their reddened eyes.
It rose above them, loud and clear,
With woeful, angry cries
It threw the crew from mast to rud
And churned up darkened skies.
*
The purple, bitter waves amassed
With foamy frothy ends
A man who tumbled from the stern
Was lost in wat’ry bends
The priest aboard consoled the crew
“We come when Jesus sends!
We are but lambs who ran astray
From flocks the dear Lord tends.”
*
Boom! … Crack!
“We’ve come to New York Bay!
I know these are the Narrows men,
If only one more day
Had passed before our jaunt began
We’d surely be okay.”
Their sides heaved at the irony
Their sides heaved with dismay.
*
The boards began an anguished groan
The hull began to fill
The sounds of waves and thunder
Overwhelmed the senses till
The men no longer fought it,
And instead embraced the chill
With stony faces, callused hearts,
And one united will
***
The day broke in an eerie calm
The sky was pink and blank
The shoreline was announced ahead
By the buoys’ clank
And all the remnants of the men,
Of the mighty ship that sank
Was floating on the languid sea:
A lone, and simple plank.
About the Author
Rachel Dix is a sixteen-year-old sophomore at George Mason High School in Northern Virginia. She’s an aspiring actress, and very interested in the arts and humanities. She plans on going to college to major in theater or marine biology, or maybe even English. She’s been writing poetry since she was nine years old, and her poem, The Storm, is the winning entry for the Underwater New York Shipwreck Story Contest.
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