THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
NATURE GAVE TO ME
EIGHT SHIPS A-SAILING
SEVEN SEAS FOR TRADING

SIX SWIMMERS SWIMMING
FIVE GOLDEN PEARS

FOUR SEASONS BRIGHT
THREE FAMILY

TWO FRONTAL LOBES
AND A BODY WITH LIFE AND LIBERTY

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It floats. Very little floats in air except for helium balloons and hydrogen filled dirigibles. Nothing really floats on land. Thus on land and in the air gravity reigns supreme and the heritage of humanity is the inevitability of falling down and breaking one's crown. But the common heritage of humanity in the ocean is the defiance of gravity by everything that is less dense than water. Lucky for us that ice which is colder than water floats or lakes and streams and oceans would turn into a solid block of ice. Lucky for us that rafts and coracles made by neolithic humans float and teach us how to build ships that carry cargoes of 500,000 tons. Even today the cargoes which are transported by air or by land are miniscule as compared to cargoes transported by sea. The ability to float cargo is the concomitant legacy of humanity to the seven seas. One could not be useful without the other. They come in all sizes and shapes. As the poet Masefield has written:

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Quinquereme of Nineveh from distant Ophir
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the isthmus,
dipping through the tropics by the palm-green shores
With a cargo of diamonds,
emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes and cinammon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a silt caked smokestack
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, Pig- lead
Firewood iron=ware and cheap tin trays.

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IF YOU LOOK TO THE FUTURE IT IS ALREADY HERE FOR
THE NINTH DAY
IF YOU WOULD RATHER REMEMBER
SEVENTH DAY
SIXTH DAY
FIFTH DAY
FOURTH DAY
THIRD DAY
SECOND DAY
FIRST DAY
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