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but never found Howland Island.
The other was an odd duck
looking for mermaids after every rainstorm.
One was Catholic,
the other Lutheran.
Both believed in female clergy
wearing Roman collars, and red hair long.
One lived at home,
the other in a flat where the gulls glide.
When they kissed the first time,
whole flocks moved in circles, like stars.
One liked Anna Ternheim,
the other, Eva Dahlgren.
When they made love the first time,
it was like piloting through easy clouds.
That May it rained every day for a week.
Water landings are dicey things;
Selkies find their buried skins and go back home,
forgetting they were ever human at all.
One moved away,
but the other stayed and wrote swells of storm-blue poems
about transformed women
wearing Roman collars, and their red hair long.
_______
for Magpie Tales #238, and for Bjorn Rudberg's mini-challenge at Real Toads.
I've featured the this song once before on my blog, but it is so hard to find, and so cool, that I'm featuring it again. Plus, it fits the poem perfectly. Anna Ternheim is a Swedish singer who performs in English.
Perfect !
ReplyDeleteZQ
Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis poem made me feel like I was gliding in the air. Not sure why, but there's a softness of acceptance to it.
ReplyDeleteSpecial loves are like this sometimes. You get them for precious moments but are left with wistful memories.
This feels like it should rhyme, like it does rhyme, because the cadence is so delicately balanced, just like the yin-yang of the women and their relationship. I don't think you can ever forget a selkie, or that blue rain they leave behind. Perfect moody poem on a grey day, Shay, shot through with all your usual color and light, but nicely prismed into the feel of the challenge. And I love that song.
ReplyDeleteThis poem glides along so beautifully and perfectly! I love the song too!
ReplyDeleteI think you have transformed Karin Boye to this day.. And Anna Ternheim has been inspired a lot by her poetry..
ReplyDeleteYou show so much through suggestion and the most beautiful imagery... no need to tell any more.
ReplyDeletestays... writes blue poems. sigh.
ReplyDeleteAbsorbing and provocative; nicely done.
ReplyDelete"whole flocks moved in circles like stars." A line that only you could write.
ReplyDeleteLike a traditional tale - very good
ReplyDeleteYou have spun a wistful tale of memories bittersweet. Sometimes love is forever and sometimes just a moment in passing. You have captured the latter quite well. Lovely, well done indeed. Beautiful song shared too.
ReplyDeleteleave it to you to disdain the common "long red hair"
ReplyDeleteSometimes they do move away.
Sometimes = always.
(The rule proving exception" makes life sublime)
Sub-lemon?
ALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
=^..^= . <3 . >< } } (°>
oh my, this is subliminal! i wanted to tell you my favorite verse...but you know, i love them all!
ReplyDeletei have missed visiting your blog. :) i hope you are doing well, friend.
stacy lynn mar
http://warningthestars.blogspot.com/
love the selkie reference, makes me want to watch the film 'Odine'.
ReplyDeleteAs I read, I just kept asking myself why I can't write like this. Adore it.
ReplyDeleteI really like how it came around at the end.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line:
wells of storm-blue poems
( continue from yours )
ReplyDeleteOne sing a song
Meow...Meow...Me A Cat
Who say " feed me " Madame =^-^=
A wonderful narrative line here--with beautiful telling details. k. (Manicddaily)
ReplyDeletea sweet interlude described wonderfully by your words...
ReplyDeletei discovered the Anna Ternheim music video on your blog ~ love it!
♥
just read a YA book where .. no i can't tell you or it will ruin it should you read it
ReplyDeleteElizabeth George's The Edge of the Water
love the feeling this left me with … i am gliding thru the water …
Hi Shay,
ReplyDeleteHappy to be here - been a long time. Love your new blog design - and the misty blue poem: mermaids and the twist of red hair long. Lovely,and a dreamy song as well...Come visit.
This is just a great version of Fly me to the moon.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the tales of both, quite a romantic twist of thoughts within the lines, and yet fully discloses both in what begs to be within the pages of a novel!
ReplyDeleteGreat story, FB!
ReplyDeleteLovely! And the bit about the selkies adds magic...
ReplyDeleteGorgeous. Read it over and over.
ReplyDeleteI had to devour this three times in a row. With each reading the verse became more gorgeous and within me a sympathy drew breath.
ReplyDeleteLove the commonalities and differences between these two women and yet how they are bound to each other by attraction.
ReplyDelete