Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today? Yes, I want to support My Edmonds News!
Here is the latest installment of Poet’s Corner, presented by the Edmonds Poetry Group.
Cradle of Twilight
Dedicated to my mother’s descent into the realm of dementia ….
At the edge of midnight
she rises from bed,
steps outside her coastal cottage
wearing her nightdress
barefooted––
shaved head.
As her soul lays ruined against the rocks,
she breathes in the briny algae drifting on the breeze,
and hears the eternal song of the seas––
the crash of cresting waves, clicking of dolphins, flurry of bubbles,
as seaweed sways, shuffling side-to-side in the ever-shifting tide.
As the webbing between her fingertips
twitches
itches
grows,
she knows––
her seal skin is forming …
eternity knocks.
Soon she’ll return to the briny deep,
swim, frolic with the Selkies,
––drift upon the waves in deep, deep sleep,
with her sisters of the sea.
As her aching body prepares for transition––
exchange of human skin for glossy black Selkie seal––
beneath the silver light of the moon,
she cries seven tears
into the sea,
the price of re-admission to her natural milieu––
She’s been gone too many years,
she misses the sweet taste of salt
and the sky reflected on water,
the soothing blue, blue, blue.
From the shore she sings a melodic tune that echoes across the waves.
Those enchanted echoes
whispers on the wind
a bridge that
crosses one mystical realm to the other––
calling to them
calling her home.
This earthbound world has been painful at times––
abandonment, loneliness, loss, grief––
things the human body can’t release …
instead,
it aches, opines and enshrines
pronounces itself dead.
But love has been a treasure healing earthly wounds.
Love, divine as the silken skin of her sisters of the sea,
has made her short journey a spree
of wonder.
Worth leaving the embrace of blue waters
… Temporarily.
But now she cries seven tears,
and calls to her family of the deep––
Will you come for me soon?
She is ready for the waves,
the gently rocking,
a cradle of twilight sleep.
Come for me soon …
She awaits divine transcendence beneath the silvery moon.
Mindy Meyers-Halleck
Mindy Halleck is an award-winning author, published poet, motivational speaker, and writing instructor. Halleck’s debut novel, Return to Sender, was released to 5-star reviews, a Reader’s Choice award, and was selected as one of Kirkus Review’s Top Twenty Indie Novels. She has won short-story writing contests and is a guest lecturer in UW fiction writing classes and local colleges. In addition to being a writer, Halleck is a happily married, globe-trotting beachcomber and three-time cancer survivor who credits part of her healing journey(s) to the art of writing. www.MindyHalleck.com
Beautiful, Mindy. The pain of the “earthbound world” – I think the exchange is worth it, as your poem so eloquently expresses, b/c of love.
Thank you. I know you understand the human sentiments and the myths.
Thank you, Ali, I appreciate your time reading and your feedback.
How do I find out more about the Edmonds Poetry Group? Do I have to live in Edmonds to belong? I live in Shoreline.
Hi Tess — I’ll connnect you via email to Jerry Bigelow, who oversees the Edmonds Poetry Group. –Teresa Wippel, publisher.
The pain of the earthbound world – a condition we all endure, some better than others.
Thanks, Mindy, for the insightful words.
I appreciate your time spent reading it. And yes, some endure better than others.
What a Beautiful, heartbreaking poem, Mindy. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you.
Wow, Mindy. This poem is so moving, and beautifully crafted. Thank you!!!
Thank you, Denise, I’m happy it resonated.. Cheers, Mindy
Strangely, I reminded of Billy Holliday’s song, “My Man”: “He beats me too, but I love him…,” in the sense that I cannot imagine what happened to Billie Holliday, nor to your mother and you. But I thank you and Billie for trying to give others a look into your lives. And I thank EPIC Poets for the poetry prompt “bells”: My “bells” poem won a prize!
Well, thank you for your comment, I love that song, Walkin’ at Midnight…. but to be clear, my mother nor I were ever beaten. That is not what my poem here is about.
Congrats on your poem winning a prize.
Gorgeous poem. I love the depth it brings to the experience of loving someone with dementia. The variations in line length brought another level of experience to reading these words, creating waves that support the experience of dementia.
Thank you, Carol. Your feedback means a lot. Cheers, Mindy