Gone Forever Skies

For all the Philip Nolan's
and the skies of home
they never saw again.

Inspired by the story
"The Man without a Country"
by Edward Everett Hale.

I watched the Sun set sinking slow into the sea.
As beautiful as anything I've ever seen to be.
I saw twilight turn to night .. and stars begin to shine ...
A sign an endless circle .. light and fire never dies.

On deck with aching heart .. I close these eyes of mine.
I see home and the dying Sun .. in gone forever Skies.
I watched the rays proclaim .. the coming of the light.
A stunning sight the rising Sun .. and the dying of the night.

For dark gives way to light and shining stars are gone.
Then day is born and now its turn .. the darkness dies.
And everywhere as fire spreads consuming gentle dawn.
I see home .. and the rising Sun .. in gone forever Skies.

David D Jerald 

Philip Nolan was the main Fiction
character in the book
"The Man without a Country"
by Edward Everett Hale.

The Man Without a Country was a short story published anonymously by Edward Everett Hale, in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863. Although the events of the novel were set in the early 1800s, the story was an allegory and implicitly referred to the upheaval of the American Civil War (especially in Ohio, with the expatriation of Clement Vallandigham). Hale, a fiercely patriotic man, intended to criticize those who had renounced the United States.

The protagonist of the story was a (fictional) young United States Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan, who struck up a friendship with the visiting Aaron Burr. When Burr was tried for treason (as he actually was in 1807), Nolan was tried as an accomplice. During his testimony, Nolan bitterly renounced his nation, angrily shouting "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" (when the novel was first published the word "damn" was considered too obscene for publication.) Upon conviction, the judge icily granted Nolan his wish: he was to spend the rest of his life on warships of the United States Navy, in exile, with no right to ever again set foot on U.S. soil, and with no mention ever again made to him about his country.

The sentence is carried out to the letter.