The mermaids drift silently and gracefully amoungst the sea water.
In the crystal stream of ocean Fishes glide with tranquil motion, Float in life that's sorrow free; Yet your throngs, in splendor moving, Show your festal spirit, proving How much more than these ye be. --Goethe, Faust/PartII
As I went down to the coast of Iona And as I looked out upon the turquoise sea there on the rocks shining in the clear light was the shimmering form of the mermaid queen Her tail was aglow with a thousand rainbows and her silver hair with shells and jewels adorned. She looked at me with eyes of emeralds and said I am the spirit of the ocean. I am the mother of mystery. And you as all humans are born of my children for as you know all life comes from the sea. Remember, my child, that the sea is within you and within you the knowledge of all that life can be. For I am at the heart of your divine destiny. Oh, great goddess of the ocean, Grandmother of the sea. You who are the keeper of the ancient mysteries I honor you and the wisdom you carry I honor the part of you that is in me And with that she smiled and vanished beneath the waves Through her form was gone the light. I'll think of Iona, remembering the words of the mermaid queen. We are all one. --Lisa Thiel from "Rising of the Pheonix"
Leagues, leagues over the sea I sail couched on a wallowing dolphin's tail. The sky is on fire, the waves a-sheen, I dabble my foot in the billows green. In a sea-weed hat on the rocks I sit, where tern and sea-mew glide and beat, and where dark shadows the cormorants meet. In cavers cool when the tide's a wash, I sound my conch to the watery splash. From out their grottos at evenings beam, the mermaids swim with locks agleam. To where I watch on the yellow sands, and they pluck sweet music with sea-cold hands. They bring me coral and amber clear. But when the stars in heaven appear, their music ceases, they glide away. They swim for their grottos across the bay. Then listen only to my shrill tune, the surfy tide, and the wondering moon. --Walter de la Mare
