The Sea Maid's Dream On Deck Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[to Hans Christian Andersen]

far from the orchid Heavens still,
mermaid like as I may be, swimming
through the vastness of possible words

I don't yet understand-
may I not be caught in the fishing lines
of so many footnotes to the poems

of my heart; bewildered by
words on land or gold spangled,
tangled in

the motes that reach me here
where it's hard, sometimes
for the Light to get through.

baffled, I try to sing
forgetting where I am or that
they have taken

my voice from me...

all this was in a dream she had First Night
in broken pearl, on deck
when the Seas grew ragged,

violet as Spring
with every wave murmuring, murmuring
don't forget - don't forget me.

mary angela douglas 4 january 2016