Will drops a berry in a stream.
It rolls and bounces along.
He thinks a dappled fish nibbles,
until he hears a silver song.
A young mermaid flutters,
rhinestone tears unshed.
She tastes the berry. Curls unfurl.
Fingers beckon. Lips curve red.
The reckless current ensnares,
and hot sunshine entrances.
Will drifts, touches berry-sweet lips,
and sinks beneath mermaid glances.
Beware the icy depths.
Beware the current strong.
Beware the sugared-lips
that sing the silver song.
Copyright 2017 Brenda Davis Harsham
Notes: Happy Poetry Friday! Thanks to Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe for hosting at the summer threshold.
For the above, I was inspired by this couplet:
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
— William Butler Yeats, from The Song of Wandering Aengus, found in Poetry for Young Readers: William Butler Yeats, Sterling Publishing, 2002.
According to legend, Aengus is the god of love, youth and poetry. I thought about the fish, and if the fish had been a mermaid…
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
THAT HERON MUST BE QUITE A POET—TO ALWAYS PICK GREAT PIECES FOR FRIFDAYS!
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A bird on the wing, a poem in the hand.
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And a rushing river to wash it all down with?
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Beautiful.. I hope you could visit my site too and give feedback on how i can improve it. Thank you.
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You have a nice site. I couldn’t get your Soundcloud to work on my computer.
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Hi!
Nice post! I’m making posts about scientific explanations behinde everyday appearance, so if you have time and will please go and check it out! If you like it please follow me, I follow you.
Thank you! 😀
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Thanks for stopping by. I like your post on sleep. Now I need to get a little more. 🙂
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Thank you very much! ❤
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I like how your mind went from Yeat’s fish transformed into a mermaid. . . it was a precious fantasy.
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Thanks, Robin. It’s fun to let the imagination go. Like the inner kid gets to play.
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I really enjoyed this story – a bit like a Brothers’ Grimm fairytale and the moral at the end. I thought it was skilfully and appropriately simply told and liked the image of “rhinestone tears”.
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Thank you!
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Reblogged this on Dream Inc. and commented:
Brenda is an amazing poet I love how her words play with each other creating magic ^.^
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Thank you!
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Wow, Brenda, I shivered at the end of this poem! A silver shiver, I’m sure.
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There’s a little fear in every exciting thing. That’s part of the delight of it.
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Ah, such twisted form of Justice. 🌹😎🌹
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I like that it reverses who is hunter and who is prey.
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Turn about is fair play, I totally understand that. 😉
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Magical story-poem, Brenda! I especially love your final stanza warning.
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Thanks, Buffy. I decided the rhythm needed to change. It’s great when it works.
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Oh, I’d love to see this illustrated, and turned into a book!
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Lovely thought. 🙂
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Brenda, this was a wonderful, fanciful tale that has the makings of a short story or book. I know you have been working on writing one. Sugared lips sound so seductive.
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Thanks, Carol. 🙂
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Brenda, you do have the most wonderful fairy tale imagination!
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Thank you! I’ll take that as a compliment. 🙂
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Brenda, this is magical! How did you capture that midsummer’s night feel in the story of the poem?
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I’m glad you found midsummer here. Revels will follow, no doubt, in the longer version. 😉
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A berry-eating, river-dwelling mermaid…COOL!
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Yes! Icy even. LOL
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love this.
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Thank you!
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Wow, kind of creepy! Beware! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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LOL An unusual dark moment for poor Will.
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I have always liked that poem by W.B. It’s cool to use that couplet as a springboard, and your poem is so intriguing!
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Thanks, Tabatha. W.B. knew what to do. He wrote so many magical verses.
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oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, those sugared lips! How, but how can I prepare my teen sons for a world of alluring mermaids? I used to think I had to protect my girls…that boys could take care of themselves more. I’m not so sure. Those beautiful girls have shadows, don’t they? Wonderful poem.
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Yes, indeed, Linda. My two boys are 15 and 13 and already feeling the pull. And I know what a fickle heart my daughter has. LOL
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This made my imagination fly. I like that it felt like those old fairy tale picture books. I love how the rhythm, rhyme and word choice just marry perfectly. Mermaids, rhinestones, red lips, curls…all of it came alive in my head. I could see the artwork in my mind and its beautiful. You painted a wonderful picture with your words.
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Thanks so much! I love the old fairy tale books.
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Magical, enchanting, beautiful! This may be one of my all-time faves of your poems. 🙂
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Thanks, Jama. You’ll turn my head!
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I hear it
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You have the magic in you. 😉
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Hi, Brenda–wow, that is definitely a fairy tale, but not so very friendly! I love the way you capture Will’s capture with a slightly sinister air, even a touch of conspiracy: “sinks beneath mermaid glances.” What about writing it the other way too, in which HE captures her?
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I like that idea. He did drop the berry, and he did move toward her. I prefer to think of it as them capturing each other. 🙂
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What? No garden photo? 🙂 Love the magical quality to your poem. Want to follow the mermaid!
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LOL I have some flower photos up my sleeve… Thanks!
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PS I sure as heck did NOT peg you for being my age! You look like a darn kid! (Jealous! And I love your hair!)
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Such a flatterer. It helps that my youngest is only 8. I got a late start and then kept going too long. LOL So far the red is hiding the gray. Won’t work forever.
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I color my hair and have so long I have no clue what color it even is anymore! ha!
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Mine used to be more vivid, but it still catches the light. 🙂
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Nice! I love how you took off from those two lines! And, I love the fairy-tale quality!
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Thanks, B.J.!
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The little berry multiplied into many more
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Just so. 🙂
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Beautiful imagination, Brenda. It reminds me of looking anywhere, and seeing what’s there for me! Love “Beware the sugared-lips/that sing the silver song.” These stories are such a lure.
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Thanks, Linda. I love your use of “lure”. Very appropriate. LOL
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I like the rhythm of that final stanza. Beware, indeed!
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Thanks, Kat! My oldest boy is 15 now. Heartbreak ahead!
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I love where your thoughts took you with this one. Those sugared lips offer sweet temptation-but watch out!
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Thanks, Kay. Be careful what you fish for. 😉
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sugared lips singing silvered songs are definitely something to be hesitant about, I agree. What a lovely lyrical poem you have treated us to today. 🙂
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Thanks, Suzanne. I’ve been racking up the rejections, and it shows. LOL
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I hope you get accepted soon. I won’t reject you if you decide to write poems for my On the Road site. 🙂
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I’ll have to check that out. I saw on Facebook you’ve decided to host a haiku prompt site. I’m glad you didn’t stop blogging. I’ll see if I can spread the word. I love to write haiku, but I am not an expert.
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I’m no expert either. I just love to create – as do you.
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I liked what you wrote on your description of haiku page. It makes it approachable. Sometimes I get hung up on the season mention or the requirement to have three separate images with an epiphany. Sometimes it’s fun to break the rules and go for it.
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Thanks Brenda. You just affirmed my intentions in setting up the site. I am glad you agree. 🙂
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love this. here’s to love, youth and poetry )
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Yay! And summer!
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Every time whenever I read one of your poems I always wish I could draw something to go beside your poems but I have ZERO artistic abilities.
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I would love to paint a mermaid for it, too, but my skills there are slow and not as good as my perfectionist nature can abide.
How can you say you have ZERO artistic abilities though? You’re a photographer! You’re a writer. That makes you an artist, too, girl friend. 🙂
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I just visualize books and wonderful illustrations side by side in your poetry book like EVERY single time I click open!
Ha…not a real photographer at all and darn sure no writer but I aspire to be a real photographer one day 🙂 – just on the journey but thanks so much for the nice words 🙂
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We are all on a journey. No one stays in one place. Even the most successful people are on a journey to their next challenge. Be okay with failure — it’s the way to success. Or so I tell myself. If I’m at the corner of Trying and Failing Streets, then I’m on my way. XOXO
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Aw, thanks Brenda – I think after all my years and now at 52, I have finally embraced failure as either comical or something better is on the way and be that “engine that could” :), Thank you so much for your encouragement 🙂 I always think of your poetry as sort of “dessert” for my mind.
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You are nearly my age. Let’s lift each other up. XOXO
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👍😃
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Watch out Will, one never knows what one will find in the depths of the sea . . . I love your mixed signals here Brenda, follow desire or follow conscience! BTW did you get my poetry postcard? I never know about USPS.
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I love your poetry postcard. I have it propped up in my front hall. I will put it in a post soon, with your permission. I’m always impressed by your watercolor technique. And lovely fairy words, too. 🙂 I think my poem emerged from my mixed feelings about the PB pitch, which I worked hard for but worried that it would end in a deep sinking feeling… Yet, an agent liked one of my pitches. Woo-hoo! No sinking to the depths after all, just silver song. 🙂
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Congrats on the interest in the agent Brenda, how exciting!
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Thanks!
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I really love this it is just up my street
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Yay! So happy to hear that.
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💜🤗
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Does the 💜 mean I write purple prose? Or wait, a purple heart for bravery in seeking a publisher? LOL I am such a goof. XOXO
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No you’re not a good you are right on both counts! 🤗💜
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LOL I like your new picture, by the way. I visited your gravatar page to get a better look. I read your sidebar. Very moving story. I also suffer back problems. That’s partly what led me to pick up the poetry where I’d left it after college. I actually finished a chapbook and submitted it to a contest. I don’t have expectations of winning, but I very much enjoyed knowing I could see that to completion. Yay for us. Undefeated and finding diamonds in the dust every day. Who could ask for more?
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Hi Brenda, yes there are more Diamonds in the dust than you would expect. Strange isn’t it similar problems leading us to return to poetry, it has really helped me. Well done you on finishing your book, my dad always said “it’s not the winning but the taking part that matters” even so good luck I am rooting for you.Be well and happy I am off to bed before I collapse on the sofa 🤗💗
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Sleep diamond dreams and wake rejuvenated, my friend.
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Thanks Brenda, you two, I just updated my profile after you mentioned reading it, just a few changes biggest on being I now have a second grandson 😁🎆💜 just under a fortnight old. Night night 🤗
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Congrats! Woo-hoo! Happy wiggle for you.
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💜🎆😁
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Yay! Fireworks! Go to sleep already, my British friend. Aren’t you exhausted?
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I was, I am 😊
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Thanks for the follow 🙂
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Nice!
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Thanks!
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