With Arms Outstretched Comments

I LOVE THIS POEM! ! I love many poems and this is one of therm, After I read it first silently, I read it out loud, thereby paralleling the poem itself which occurs in silence until the very end. You deftly handle the two levels of imagined reality and actual reality. For most of the poem I was watching a real mermaid live and enjoy her self-contained, perfect solitude without any interfering shadows or desires. Your vibrant imagery made this world delightfully convincing. I surrendered completely to its sweet illusion. I would have stayed there happily submerged in an alien paradise but you gently pulled the curtain over its allure and revealed the real world - also wonderful - of a young woman whose vivid imagination had animated mine. My gratitude to both young women and to the poet Laura who created this beautiful fantasy of escape and discovery