Beth Camp Historical Fiction

Friday, October 16, 2015

#15: Sea Elegy for a Mermaid


The ship tips into waters deep, and I float down, near sleep
The ship tips into waters deep, and I float down, near sleep
The sea streams, bubbles past; deepest green to deepest black
The sea streams, bubbles past; deepest green to deepest black
The green ship bubbles near and tips down, streams into black
Deepest waters, deepest sleep, I float past the deep sea

Down to the depth where pale pink coral gardens abound
Down to the depth where pale pink coral gardens abound
Sea grasses reach to blue waters beyond my vision, rimmed with tears
Sea grasses reach to blue waters beyond my vision, rimmed with tears
To coral gardens, rimmed with tears, pale pink sea grasses abound
Where my vision reaches beyond the depth down, to waters blue

In that lost kingdom of stories untold, you wait for me
In that lost kingdom of stories untold, you wait for me
Where the yellow fishes swim; my heart’s desire found at last
Where the yellow fishes swim; my heart’s desire found at last
Where the yellow fishes wait for stories, my untold desire lost and found,
At last, you swim in my heart’s kingdom for me

The ship tips into waters deep, and I float down, near sleep,
The sea streams, bubbles past; deepest green to deepest black
Down to the depth where pale pink coral gardens abound,
Sea grasses reach to blue waters beyond my vision, rimmed with tears
In that lost kingdom of stories untold, you wait for me
Where the yellow fishes swim; my heart’s desire found at last


Today's prompt from OctPoWriMo sets a poetry challenge of a fixed form -- the Paradelle. Trust me, this one is so complicated, with doubled lines AABB setting the words for CC in each stanza. That last stanza is supposed to be made up entirely of every word in the preceding stanzas -- but in an entirely new form. Sorry. I ran out of time.

When I went snorkeling the first time, the instructor in an amazing adventure off the coast of Honduras, began our lessons in waist deep water. We were then taken to waters about 30 feet deep. And then our little boat took us to that place where the bottom of the sea slanted down to an abyss. Not everyone wanted to snorkle along that ridge, looking down into the black, past the fantastic coral reefs and shifting schools of fishes.

The drawing? Into the deep -- by me.

Read what others have written for today's challenge at OctPoWriMo HERE and more about the Paradelle at Shadow Poetry HERE.

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