Vision Come Out Of The Sea

Standing one day upon the shore of the deep,
In sunrise, in morning, when the brilliance of sunlight
Lies on the water in radiance to make the eyes weep,
I saw something at move, at play, within the bright
Fall of the wave and fall of the water,
Something that moved like the incoming tide.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the sea-daughter,
Drifting with her head and hair cast out on the foam,
The wavelets rippling about her as if they would hide
Her beauty that sang like a perfect poem.
She opened her eyes and turned her head to me,
And I found myself unable to move, unable to turn.
She whirled and began to cleave her way through the sea,
And I turned away, trying to make my eyes and face stern,
Telling myself it was the sunlight that made my eyes burn.

Then I heard a voice call out in a tongue like the spin,
Like the voice of the water as it rises under the moon.
I turned, and saw her hair lifted from her face by a wind
As she came to the edge of the shore and sang a sweet tune.
Her hair was the glinting gold-green hue
That the leaves acquire when on a summer day
The sunlight falls from a sky that has grown blue,
And glimmers on the leaves of the trees in the forest.
But I knew that she had never seen the leaf-play,
For the sea came through her every soft chorus.
She lingered there, smiling at me, then turning her hair,
So it gleamed in the sunlight, and the wind blew it free.
It was as if she wanted me to see that she was so fair,
So I would be tempted to stay there, by the side of the sea.
I was as strange to the mermaid as she was to me.

In silence we gazed upon each other. I saw the white skin,
The blue eyes that shimmered and glimmered and shifted,
Changing colors in rhythm and link with the tide coming in,
Colors borne on those eyes like the driftwood that drifted
In upon the tide and were strewn at my feet.
I caught glimpses, now and then, of her flipping tail,
Rising and then falling in time to some unheard beat,
Scattering, when it fell, droplets of foam like the dewdrops
That on the fields would be gathered; each glittering scale
Was mantled with silver from the foam's clips and clops.
I saw, gleaming on the sides of her slim white throat,
The gills that would open when she went undersea,
Now lying like fairy gossamer or a song's undernotes.
I stared, starting when the wind blew her hair towards me,
Enchanted by this vision that had come from the sea.

And for her part? She would have seen nothing so fine.
She would have seen something, of course, strange to her.
And perhaps that served as well as her beauty's wine
Served me, strong and sweet as the wine of the summer.
She would have seen the legs, instead of
The tail that bore her through the water like a song.
She would not have seen skin pale as a dove,
But instead tanned and burned by the sun she had seen,
If at all, only afar and not for very long,
Shining down through a roof of purest green.
She would see a sunburned, a human, a mortal face,
That had never known the breathing of the sea,
That had not been meant or made for her fey grace,
That perhaps did not seem to her as wild or as free.
I could hope I interested her, however, as she did me.

Then, wonder of wonders, she reached up to her hair,
And unclasped a lock, and pressed it into my hand.
I stood and fixed the glimmering gold-green tress with my stare,
Wondering what treasure I could give her from the land
That would be half so wondrous, as magnificent.
Then she reached out and her fingers brushed
The buckle of my worn belt. It shone argent
In the sunlight, but of pure silver forged it was not.
I tried to convince her otherwise, but she, unhushed,
Glared at me; the matter would not be forgot.
I unclasped it at last, and gave it; sweet to see
Was the expression on her face as she cradled it close.
When she looked up again, she stared at me,
And her face bloomed with wonder, and light like a rose,
And then she turned and dived under rainbows.

I strained my eyes to watch her go, bright upon bright.
I saw a trailing glint of green-gold hair- it made my heart melt-
And then from the distance the flash and flare of sunlight
On metal that, I was sure, had once held up a belt.
I watched her go, and then I turned away.
The sun was rising; I was due back for my chores.
The morning and dawn were melting into the day.
But there are some things that the world cannot destroy,
Some moments that the heart forever up stores.
Such was that moment, and such was my sudden joy.
No matter what I was doing, what I went on to be,
Some part of me would always be standing there,
Gazing on the vision that had come out of the sea,
And smiled on me, and seemed to find me strange and fair,
And had given me a lock of green-gold, fire-fine hair.