What poet said “The only ship certain to come in has black sails” and what does it mean to you?

It means death.

That saying came from a 2007 Woody Allen movie Cassandra’s Dream. I’ve never seen that movie & I don’t know in what context Woody meant it to be.

I see “the ship with the black sails” to be the ship of death…or loss. The ONLY certainty in life is that we are born to die & death will be coming for us…or we will lose a friend or family member in our lifetime. We will miss them terribly for a while & then the good memories kick in & we remember the good times that we shared & we can smile once again!!!

When my ship comes in, with my luck, I’ll be at the bus station. 8^\

It’s also a response to the phrase “my ship is coming in” which means you are expecting something good to happen. The response means you can’t be certain of anything except death.