It’s May, which means that all across the internet, artists of all kinds are participating in MerMay—a contest and celebration of all things mermaid-related, hosted by Whitney Pollett and Lauren Barger. The challenge offers an open-ended prompt for each day of the month, encouraging participants to draw (or paint, or craft, or animate) thirty-one pieces of art, stretching their creative muscles and getting in a lot of excellent practice along the way!
MerMay began in 2016 with former Disney illustrator Tom Bancroft, who decided to challenge himself just for fun, inviting other creators to join in. The trend went viral and MerMay has continued, now celebrating its eighth year. The result? An outpouring of gorgeous, unusual and visually-striking mermaid-themed artwork (which you can find on various social media platforms under the hashtag #MerMay).
While I’m not participating in this year’s MerMay, I do like mermaids, and poetry is an under-celebrated art form of its own. So this month, I’ve compiled twelve poems which draw on mermaid imagery and themes. If you’re an artist taking on the MerMay challenge, you may find inspiration here that will inform your art. (Reverse ekphrasis! Yay!) But even if you aren’t participating in MerMay, these poems are worth a read all on their own…
“Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas Lost at Sea, 1527” by Lisa M. Bradley
Nobody needs your damn armada.
Come hear the truth from me.
I’ll tie you to the mast, Capitán,
kelp-tickle your beard
as you sink into the sea…
To start us off, a visceral and utterly compelling tale of the sinking of a ship, based on a real-life event. Bradley packs each verse with fierce, emotive imagery that drags you into the scene, close enough to the action to taste salt on your lips.
“II. The Mermaid (from The Sea Cabinet)” by Caitríona O’Reilly
Between the imaginary iceberg and the skeletal whale
is the stuffed and mounted mermaid in her case,
the crudely-stitched seam between skin and scaleso unlike Herbert Draper’s siren dreams…
We come now to dry land, to bear witness to the desiccated body of a mermaid on display in a museum. This poem is dark, dusted all over with the sense that we’re too late—but nonetheless it’s an absorbing read.
“The Little Mermaid” by Daisy Aldan
My tail transmuted to legs, my voice
Usurped; the icy winds, the thousand foot waves; and I
With my liver gnawed by mice, danced on daggers on the path…
A poetic retelling now of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale of the same name. Perhaps the best-known story of a mermaid, this tale balances hope on a knife’s edge, doom on either side. That same fraught balance is struck in Aldan’s verse.
“Sawa” by Karolina Fedyk
“They mustn’t see you.”
Your hand pushes me back into the cold.
For a second, I don’t know how to breathe underwater.
Then I remember again. Riverbed is home.
Tides fold over me, smooth and sweet, asking:
what could be worth burning your voice out, up there?…
This third poem tells a subversive love story, in verse that will wash over you as gently as a lapping wave. In their author’s note, Fedyk explains: “One of the origin stories in Polish folklore is the legend of a fisherman, Wars, falling in love with a mermaid named Sawa. However, Sawa is a traditional male name; and while calling Wars’ lover by it might be a quirk of folk tradition, I believe it points to an entirely different story.”
“Beachcomber Nocturne” by Lupita Eyde-Tucker
Pink seafoam leaves odd gifts for me to find:
a puffed-up man-o-war, a mermaid’s purse,empty lady slippers, Sargasso weed,
as if these things could fill my human needs…
“Beachcomber Nocturne” doesn’t deal with mermaids directly, but the relationship it crafts between its narrator and the sea is one which feels almost symbiotic. Read and imagine the soft shushing of waves upon the shore.
“The Toll of the Sea” by Sally Wen Mao
GREEN means go, so run — now —
GREEN the color of the siren sea, whose favors are a mortgage upon the soul
RED means stop, before the cliffs jag downward
RED the color of the shore that welcomes…
Another poem which does not speak explicitly of mermaids—but which utilises mermaid imagery in the telling of its story—is “The Toll of the Sea,” named for the first film in which Chinese American actress Anna May Wong starred in a leading role.
“The Dark at the End of the Tunnel” by Rosie Garland
A woman walks upon the ocean floor.
Her skirt balloons around her legs
with the slow grace of a manta ray…
The mermaid of Garland’s dark and melancholy poem is not a literal one, but nonetheless she is ensconced in vivid oceanic imagery. Hold your breath and follow her as she drifts to the end of the tunnel.
“The Fantasy of Hans Christian Andersen” by KH van Berkum
Ariel, belle of the sea, drunk on a bar stool next to me. She grieves,
says she feels suckered, did not sprout the legs
she was promised…
Like Aldan’s “The Little Mermaid,” this poem plays with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale—although its use of the name Ariel calls to mind the beloved Disney adaptation. This version of events is darker, more dismal, and surprisingly gruesome.
“Railroad del Mar” by Lysz Flo
My fin cuts through the bioluminescent
memories as I bring the mortal freedom seekers to a place of refuge.My eyes black, pupilless, & full like our skin
The humans hesitant at a Siren surfacing (they have learned well)…
“Railroad del Mar,”by Afrolatine Caribbean poet Lysz Flo, is about more than mermaids, though Flo’s use of mermaid-like imagery lends the tale it weaves—of battles, vengeance and the quest for freedom—a fantasy cast.
“The Sea Shell” by Marin Sorescu (trans. Michael Hamburger)
I have hidden inside a sea shell
but forgotten in which.Now daily I dive,
filtering the sea through my fingers,
to find myself…
In this short and introspective poem, the narrator dives for shells, hoping to find their true self tucked inside one like a pearl. Their quest is edged with despair, as so many shells look—from the surface—almost exactly alike.
“The Sea Singer” by Alfred Perceval Graves
Sweet pain, pleasure sharp,
She poured from her harp;
Around her we listened in wonder,
The wave warbled under…
Penned in 1913, this lyrical poem tells the timeworn tale of a maiden luring sailors out to their deaths. Its rhyme scheme carries the story onward like a raft on the waves.
“Rich & Strange” by Ann K. Schwader
Dark seas have washed their faces clean of love
Or loss or fear, past earthly comprehension.
Their bones are coldsleep coral now, eroded
By slowly dreaming centuries…
This final, profound and powerful poem puts a though-provoking sci-fi twist on mermaids, blurring the bounds of night sky and sea, dying stars and deep oceans.
Which of these poems is your favourite—and do you know of any mermaid poetry that you’d add to this list? Let us know in the comments below…
