Fishermen's Last Supper
(by Marsden Hartley)

For wine, they drank the ocean--
for bread, they ate their own despairs;
counsel from the moon was theirs
for the foolish contention.

Murder is not a pretty thing
yet seas do raucous everything
to make it pretty--
for the foolish or the brave,
a way seas have.
​



​
​(p. 271 of Collected Poems)
(originally published in Androscoggin, 1940)

Fishermen’s Last Supper, Nova Scotia, 1940-41, Oil on hardboard. Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Gift from the estate of Roy R. Neuberger (http://www.texashighways.com/culture-lifestyle/item/7316-fort-worth-exhibits)

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→ Poetry prompt: Write about something important in your life without actually ever writing directly about it.
​Use something else to talk about the important feeling or event. For instance, the sea, or supper time.