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Poetry Month #17: The Vision of the Sea

I must apologize for not posting yesterday. I did write two poems, but was so dissatisfied with them that I could not bring myself to post them unless I alter them first. Here, however, is a very long ballad that I worked on last year, and wrote the last half of today. I also wrote some children's poems with Esther and Peter that I'll likely post tomorrow.


 

The Vision of the Sea Day #17


The place where the mermaid births her young in their sacs translucent and thin

Is known as a stone on the ocean’s plateau where the currents branch like the winds

As they each emerge from her fishlike tail, they are caught on a watery breeze

Dispersed through depths from shore to shore: the people of the seas


A maiden of the watery breed on the rock was writhing in pain

Her merman stayed near her to comfort his bride with a seaweed fixed in his mane

And without a thought to his helpless young being taken without memory

He relished thoughts of wand’ring free: a Father of the sea


Each sac was designed to hold its pearl until fully formed was the sprite

Who sprung from the cage with a workable tail and a pair of eyes new and bright

But a little sac fell upon a reef where the polyps waved elegantly

And a girl emerged with clouded eyes, all darkness was the sea


Her hesitant hands were cold as ice and she knew not what she should do

Her weakness was such that survival depended on sight to hunt for her food

So her lovely tail of a sea foam green hanging limp at her silent decree

She nestled in the coral, crying at the empty sea


‘Twas Gelanaire sweet who found her there sleeping near a grotto dim

Who took hold her shoulder and whispered a word so with energy she’d swim

And the gentle sound granted hope to heart beating ever more quiet and weak

She rose to meet the angel who could help her brave the sea.


Good Gelanaire stayed a day or two to assist the mermaid frail

The first that she did was decipher the name inscribed on her delicate tail

“You’re Aeness,” she breathed to the waiting girl, and her ear quivered sensitively

She poured her thanks on Gelenaire, the Mother of the sea


The seasons passed by with little change for the mermaid trapped in the dark

In the mystery of her grotto as free from the light as free from the shark

But round her cave oozed the bubbling springs that were warm and nurturing

And their minerals kindled beauty in the ever giving sea


At her sparkling voice the cautious grasses trembled and unfurled,

In the waters around her perch the sea worms frolicking all uncurled

And the springs dried up at the moment she lifted her lonely melody

So the heaviest depths were silent for the Siren of the sea


A few weakly rays of sun trickled down and rippled upon her hair

When a merman despondently seeking the deep was astonished to find here there

Her beauty bewitched his aching heart and he gestured in manner friendly

He could not do more, for he had no voice when born into the sea


He made his approach with a sudden foreboding until they were face to face

And the dusk on her eyes in the uncanny depth made him distance himself from her gaze

And his head sinking lower with all the force that the realization could be

He swore he would have none but her if it cost him all the sea


The merman took leave of Aness unaware, and dove far beyond any light

But he felt for the path only whispered about, and he followed it with little fright

When finally he reached the crevices great that caused so many to flee

He plunged within to beg a gift, a seeker of the sea


What happened within those blackest cracks is impossible to expose

He pleaded for freely given voice from the creature that laid in repose

The being would never aid for good, and demanded a mischievous fee

The desperate merman sealed the trade with the terror of the sea


He could not but shout, on climbing up, to play with his marvelous voice

It startled Anness, who awoke from a dream with a similar cause to rejoice

Her eyes were bright and her grotto defined and she turned about wonderingly

A world of color opened in the cold mysterious sea

He approached in delight as he heard the girl swimming round to inspect the terrain

“I’m Nisor,” he called out and she fled at the sight of a stranger creature made plain

Overwhelmed by a sense she’d never known, she opened her lips to scream

But no sound came forth, for he had made her silent as the sea


Now Nisor came near for to claim his prize, trusting in his new charm and fine look

And what, he had reasoned, would be cause for dismay? It was only a voice that he took

But his eyes were dim, and he held out his hand, speaking slightly more hesitantly

He told of his love from the moment he viewed a vision of the sea


Anness battled terror for all that was new, from this merman or close flapping ray

And she left him still using his stolen voice to seek comfort wherever she may

And Nisor did not realize she’d gone until it was too late to secure his dream

They both drifted separate and miserable in the cruel and heartless sea


The grasses around her grotto have wilted and bend to the current’s will

The little, remembering dwellers mourn for her missing music still

And all for an unsolicited trade was born this great tragedy:

She aches with song but cannot sing her vision of the sea


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