She spotted her on the ebb tide,
in the narrow water of Dublin Bay,
in the early morning crepuscule
of an ordinary day,
with tangles of sea foam in her hair –
a mermaid or a water fay.
She’d always wanted a soul sister
with whom to dance and play;
she wouldn’t feel so lonely,
if she could convince her to stay.
Each morning, she would call her
novalis of the deep, away
among the rollers,
but close enough to lead astray.
The mermaid swam and frolicked,
she danced a sea ballet;
she was close enough to see
her eyes were morning cloud grey.
Soon they were swimming together,
in the sea at Dublin Bay,
diving with seals and teasing gulls,
in the salty foam and spray.
But her playmate always vanished
as soon as she felt the sun’s rays;
sunlit and restless, the mermaid belonged
in the ocean’s infinite space.
Kim M. Russell, 5th May 2026
I can’t believe it’s 5th May already and today, at the dVerse Poets Pub, it’s Tuesday Poetics, with Merril as our host. She says that she is making it a simple prompt, while we can choose to make it as complex as we like.
Merril goes on to say: “people seem to enjoy creating poems from random words. I recently came across a dVerse prompt I did using types of daffodil names. As we are moving closer to summer, I’m going to use rose names.”
Our challenge is to choose a minimum of five rose names from a list and, if the rose name is more than one word, we must use both words. The only stipulation is to not use the word ‘rose’ in our poems.
I chose: Beyond Blue, Crepuscule, Dublin Bay, Ebb Tide, Mermaid, Narrow Water, Novalis, Restless, Sea Foam, Soul Sister, Sunlit and Tangles, which turned into a bit of a ballad.
writing in north norfolk 
Well done! I am especially smitten by these lines”The mermaid swam and frolicked,she danced a sea ballet;” These words I can just see in my head and they are so rollicking happy! 🙂
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Thank you, Lill!
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Nicely done! It seems the mermaid theme resonated the loudest amongst the poets! I especially liked the ending “sunlit and restless, the mermaid belonged
in the ocean’s infinite space”.
Definitely completes the dreamy feel of this excellent poem, Kim! 🩵
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Thank you very much, Cara!
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This is exquisitely drawn, Kim! 😍 Like you, I was also drawn to these rose names. Especially admire; “novalis of the deep,” and “The mermaid swam and frolicked, she danced a sea ballet.” ❤️❤️
A memorable poem!
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Thank you so much, Sanaa! 💕
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I love your playful mermaid… like little girls playing… but also that sad separation. Friendship is so much nicer than cold passion.
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Thank you, Björn. Mermaid stories are usually about men falling in love with them, or the other way round, so I thought I’d look at human/mermaid relationships from another angle.
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I love this mermaid, “water fay,” and the ballad style, Kim. You should set it or find someone to set it to music! It has the feel of an old ballad. There’s the sadness that they’ll never be together.
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Thanks so much, Merril!
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You’re welcome, Kim!
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Beautiful written 😘
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Thank you, Maggie!
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“she was close enough to see
her eyes were morning cloud grey.”
and i luv the fact that you chose to rhyme
much love
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love the way this builds. esp like “the salty foam and spray.”
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