Today’s prompt from Napowrimo (thank you Maureen Thorson!): “Our (optional) prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World. First published in 1958, the book gives shortish descriptions of odd natural phenomena, and is notable for both its author’s turn of phrase and intermittently dubious facts.”
Because, truly, I do think it a little strange that the manatee, or its cousin the dugong, ever looked like a mermaid to the lonely sailors of the sea, I chose this idea from the “strangest things” book.
From the book, I chose the entry on “Mammal Prototypes of the ‘Mermaid’”
“The prototypes of the “mermaids” of legend are among the least known of all animals to naturalists because of their underwater habitat and their secretive habits. They are the manatees of the Caribbean region and the dugongs of the Indian Ocean. They constitute the only remaining species of the serenia, or moon creatures, distant relatives of the elephant. Both have a somewhat human facial appearance. They feed standing upright in the water, their flippers held out before them like arms. Sometimes the females hold their calves in these flippers. Seen from a distance, they have a curiously human appearance, which may account for the many reports of mermaids and mermen.”
And though, I think the sailors must have been hallucinating to spot a manatee or dugong and see a mermaid (less often a merman), I wrote my poem in response to this entry. And because I spent a good part of my day in the dentist office, I decided to write a short poem, called a Triolet.
Not sure that was a timesaver, but here’s my triolet and poem for day 4. That intricate rhyme scheme with two refrains is a challenge indeed!
Mermaid: Triolet
She rises from the churning waves.
Ahoy, a maiden from the sea
What makes a mermaid act so brave?
She rises from the churning waves.
Will our ship she try to save?
Keep us windward and not lee.
She rises from the churning waves.
Ahoy, a maiden from the sea.
Note: (To learn more about the difference in manatees and dugongs, read this article by Emily Brauner.)
Poet Voice 