Caveat: In a storm, the very waves seemed friendly

The Idiot
Oh how this sullen, careless world
Ignorant of me is! Those rocks, those homes
Know not the touch of my flesh, nor is there one tree
Whose shade has known me for a friend.
I’ve wandered the wide world over.
No man I’ve known, no friendly beast
Has come and put its nose into my hands.
No maid has welcomed my face with a kiss.
Yet once, as I took passage
From Gibraltar to Cape Horn
I met some friendly mariners on the boat
And as we struggled to keep the ship from sinking
In a storm, the very waves seemed friendly, and the sound
The spray made as it hit the front of the boat.
- John Ashbery (American poet, 1927-2017)

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