A Thousand Ladders
A thousand ladders
Placed against hundreds of ships, boats
Up and down the coasts of time
Here are two Friendships
Between men and wood
Tar and bronze
The tide is rising
If it could be for peace
Here within eyesight
At the edge of The Head of the Bay
Are those boats, one inside, one out
Constituting a revival
Of close, fine work
Mostly done by volunteers
Who substitute pizza for Old Newburyport rum
Sunshine, no breeze makes it warm enough
To work, and work on
Unhampered by snow, freezing rain, gales
It’s a lovely day
For charming boats
Even if sailing is five months off
Do sailors, boatmen think that today
We are close to Heaven
The steambox working properly
Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland. He has a history degree from Gordon College and pursued graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze (Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death.
On April 29, 2010, Merriam was appointed Rockland's naugural Poet Laureate, an honor from his hometown that Merriam cherishes.
The glue holding
The paint scraping fruitful
It will make the mind anticipate
Long, sunny days on Penobscot Bay
With chicken sandwiches
And Paula’s lemon cake
Do the workers think of this
Or just the strip at hand
The sea draws men and women
In spite of weather, of any danger
Is it the smell of salt
Is it God’s will
Having given this blessing of water
The skill to build
Humans follow age-old instincts
Leaving comfortable homes
Even in retirement
To make these creations
To finish and restore
So we hope this work
Will go on and on
